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Trump University Fraud Cases Settled for $25 Million

SAN DIEGO, Nov 19—President-elect Donald Trump has reached a $25 million settlement to resolve litigation in New York and California involving allegations of fraud at the now-defunct Trump University, an agreement that resolves a major litigation headache before he enters the White House.

Attorneys for the parties announced the settlement, which is still subject to court approval, during a Friday court hearing.

Mr. Trump has been battling cases brought in California by consumers who alleged the New York businessman’s for-profit real-estate school falsely promised that its seminars would teach them Mr. Trump’s strategies for success. New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman also brought similar claims in separate litigation and will be allocated $4 million of the settlement proceeds.

Mr. Trump has denied the allegations, saying students got their money’s worth from the seminars and that many students gave positive reviews.

Mr. Trump, who announced senior administration appointments on Friday, addressed the settlement on Twitter Saturday morning, saying he agreed to settle because of his election as president.

“I settled the Trump University lawsuit for a small fraction of the potential award because as President I have to focus on our country,” he said in one tweet. “The ONLY bad thing about winning the Presidency is that I did not have the time to go through a long but winning trial on Trump U. Too bad!,” he wrote in another.

The settlement could benefit thousands of consumers who enrolled in Trump University courses, which cost between roughly $1,500 and $35,000.

Mr. Trump won’t admit any wrongdoing as part of the agreement. A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization said: “While we have no doubt that Trump University would have prevailed at trial based on the merits of this case, resolution of these matters allows President-elect Trump to devote his full attention to the important issues facing our great nation.”

Daniel Petrocelli, an attorney for Mr. Trump, said outside the courthouse that while Mr. Trump “can fight, as we all know,” he put aside his personal beliefs to forge the agreement and avoid trial.

Mr. Schneiderman in a statement said the settlement “is a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university.”

Plaintiffs’ lawyers will forego taking a percentage of the settlement for attorney fees, an attorney for the students said in court, though $1 million of the funds has been allocated for expenses.

“Plaintiffs are very pleased to be able to pay off their credit cards and move on with their lives,” Rachel Jensen, an attorney for the ex-students, said in court.

The settlement comes as Mr. Trump’s team had been seeking to postpone trial proceedings in one of the California cases, which was scheduled to get under way Nov. 28.

During the Friday hearing, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego said he would review the deal to see if it is “fair, adequate and reasonable.”

He added that “with respect to this country,” he hopes the settlement is the “beginning of a healing process that this country sorely needs.” At a hearing last week, the judge urged the parties to settle the case.

Trial proceedings already had been postponed during the presidential campaign so the case wouldn’t interfere with the election. After he won the White House, Mr. Trump sought another delay, saying he needed to be preparing for his new administration, not the litigation. He also sought permission to testify remotely in the case instead of having to appear in person in front of jurors and Judge Curiel.

While the GOP presidential nominee, Mr. Trump criticized Judge Curiel for not dismissing the case before trial, alleging the judge was biased, given his “Mexican heritage” and Mr. Trump’s tough stance on illegal immigrants from Mexico. Those comments were widely criticized. Judge Curiel, whose parents are from Mexico, was born in Indiana.

The case is one of several that threatened to intrude on Mr. Trump’s early tenure as president.
Other cases include litigation between Mr. Trump and two prominent chefs who withdrew from plans to open restaurants in a new Trump hotel in Washington, D.C., citing incendiary remarks by the New York businessman on the campaign trail.

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Bernie Sanders: Where the Democrats Go From Here

Millions of Americans registered a protest vote on Tuesday, expressing their fierce opposition to an economic and political system that puts wealthy and corporate interests over their own. I strongly supported Hillary Clinton, campaigned hard on her behalf, and believed she was the right choice on Election Day. But Donald J. Trump won the White House because his campaign rhetoric successfully tapped into a very real and justified anger, an anger that many traditional Democrats feel.

I am saddened, but not surprised, by the outcome. It is no shock to me that millions of people who voted for Mr. Trump did so because they are sick and tired of the economic, political and media status quo.
Working families watch as politicians get campaign financial support from billionaires and corporate interests — and then ignore the needs of ordinary Americans. Over the last 30 years, too many Americans were sold out by their corporate bosses. They work longer hours for lower wages as they see decent paying jobs go to China, Mexico or some other low-wage country. They are tired of having chief executives make 300 times what they do, while 52 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent. Many of their once beautiful rural towns have depopulated, their downtown stores are shuttered, and their kids are leaving home because there are no jobs — all while corporations suck the wealth out of their communities and stuff them into offshore accounts.

Working Americans can’t afford decent, quality child care for their children. They can’t send their kids to college, and they have nothing in the bank as they head into retirement. In many parts of the country they can’t find affordable housing, and they find the cost of health insurance much too high. Too many families exist in despair as drugs, alcohol and suicide cut life short for a growing number of people.
President-elect Trump is right: The American people want change. But what kind of change will he be offering them? Will he have the courage to stand up to the most powerful people in this country who are responsible for the economic pain that so many working families feel, or will he turn the anger of the majority against minorities, immigrants, the poor and the helpless?

Will he have the courage to stand up to Wall Street, work to break up the “too big to fail” financial institutions and demand that big banks invest in small businesses and create jobs in rural America and inner cities? Or, will he appoint another Wall Street banker to run the Treasury Department and continue business as usual? Will he, as he promised during the campaign, really take on the pharmaceutical industry and lower the price of prescription drugs?

I am deeply distressed to hear stories of Americans being intimidated and harassed in the wake of Mr. Trump’s victory, and I hear the cries of families who are living in fear of being torn apart. We have come too far as a country in combating discrimination. We are not going back. Rest assured, there is no compromise on racism, bigotry, xenophobia and sexism. We will fight it in all its forms, whenever and wherever it re-emerges.

I will keep an open mind to see what ideas Mr. Trump offers and when and how we can work together. Having lost the nationwide popular vote, however, he would do well to heed the views of progressives. If the president-elect is serious about pursuing policies that improve the lives of working families, I’m going to present some very real opportunities for him to earn my support.

Let’s rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and create millions of well-paying jobs. Let’s raise the minimum wage to a living wage, help students afford to go to college, provide paid family and medical leave and expand Social Security. Let’s reform an economic system that enables billionaires like Mr. Trump not to pay a nickel in federal income taxes. And most important, let’s end the ability of wealthy campaign contributors to buy elections.

In the coming days, I will also provide a series of reforms to reinvigorate the Democratic Party. I believe strongly that the party must break loose from its corporate establishment ties and, once again, become a grass-roots party of working people, the elderly and the poor. We must open the doors of the party to welcome in the idealism and energy of young people and all Americans who are fighting for economic, social, racial and environmental justice. We must have the courage to take on the greed and power of Wall Street, the drug companies, the insurance companies and the fossil fuel industry.

When my presidential campaign came to an end, I pledged to my supporters that the political revolution would continue. And now, more than ever, that must happen. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. When we stand together and don’t let demagogues divide us up by race, gender or national origin, there is nothing we cannot accomplish. We must go forward, not backward.

Bernie Sanders, a senator from Vermont, was a candidate for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

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U.S. Faces a Startling New Political Reality After Donald Trump’s Victory

The American political establishment was reeling from shock on Wednesday as leaders in both parties began coming to grips with four years of President Donald J. Trump in the White House, a once-unimaginable scenario that has now plunged the United States and its allies and adversaries into a period of unprecedented uncertainty about the policies and impact of Mr. Trump.

President Obama, a longtime foe of Mr. Trump, and Hillary Clinton, the president-elect’s vanquished opponent, held separate news conferences to urge people to put aside whatever bruised feelings and disappointment they have and come together for the sake of the republic, and for the good of Mr. Trump’s presidency.

Mr. Obama, addressing the nation from the Rose Garden on Wednesday, said he had called Mr. Trump with congratulations and to invite him to meet at the White House on Thursday to discuss a smooth transition to the Trump administration.

“We are all now rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country,” Mr. Obama said. “The peaceful transfer of power is one of the hallmarks of our democracy. And over the next few months we are going to show that to the world.”

Mrs. Clinton, in her first remarks to supporters after the election, said that she hoped that Mr. Trump “will be a successful president for all Americans,” and said she was “sorry that we did not win this election for the values we share and the vision we hold for our country.”

“This is painful, and it will be for a long time,” Mrs. Clinton said, standing beside her husband, former President Bill Clinton, in a tableau that underscored the end of a nearly 25-year era when the Clintons dominated American politics.

Noting that the country was “more deeply divided than we thought,” Mrs. Clinton added: “We must accept this result and look to the future. Donald Trump is going to be our president — we owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.”

While her speech largely dealt with politics, Mrs. Clinton choked back tears at times, and turned personal at one point.

“To all the little girls who are watching this,” she said, “never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.”

For many millions of voters, a sense of excitement and even euphoria coursed from coast to coast as they celebrated the election of a true political outsider who had promised to reverse policies of the Obama administration and be a champion for “forgotten Americans.” But millions of others felt a sense of dread and even fear as they tried to fathom how Mr. Trump could win the presidency when so many polls suggested otherwise, and to prepare themselves for the consequences of a new leader who has no experience in government or world affairs.

Trump campaign advisers said on Wednesday that the president-elect was turning to assembling a cabinet and White House team and selecting a conservative nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy. The advisers said Mr. Trump was inclined to roll out a few cabinet nominations at a time, rather than kicking them off with one high-profile pick for a critical department like Treasury or State.

Among the candidates for cabinet secretaries and advisers are members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle, aides said, including Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a crucial adviser on policy issues; Steven Mnuchin, a businessman who was Mr. Trump’s national finance chairman; Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York; Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey; and Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the House.

Mr. Trump also spent Wednesday morning receiving phone calls from world leaders, said the campaign advisers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the transition planning. The advisers declined to identify the leaders, though one said it would be unusual if the president-elect had not heard from allies like Britain and Germany.

Asked if President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had spoken with Mr. Trump, who surprised many Americans by saying that Mr. Putin had been a stronger leader than President Obama, the aide said the two men had not been in touch.
Anxiety was particularly deep among Hispanics, African-Americans, Muslims, immigrants, women and others who had felt disparaged or demonized by Mr. Trump, who at times used harsh and racially charged language in ways that upended mainstream politics. The very idea that Mr. Trump had been endorsed by a Ku Klux Klan newspaper — even if he rejected it — symbolized the sense of shock that he would now lead a vibrantly diverse democracy.

Asked how they would feel about a Trump presidency, more than a third of Americans said they would be frightened, exit polls found. Among those who voted for Hillary Clinton, the feeling was almost unanimous and reflected a deep divide: 92 percent said Mr. Trump scared them.

Politicians also joined business leaders — as well as the many Americans with retirement and savings accounts — in keeping a nervous eye on the world financial markets in fear of the sort of backlash that wounded Britain after its vote in June to leave the European Union. While some business leaders worried about the nation’s sliding into recession, others were more hopeful that Mr. Trump’s proposals of tax cuts, infrastructure spending and relaxing of regulations would be welcomed by the financial markets, which stabilized after sharp declines overnight.

Political activity and reactions in both parties were in a surreal state of suspended animation as Republicans and Democrats began anticipating Mr. Trump’s moves. Paul D. Ryan, the speaker of the House, said at a news conference Wednesday morning that Mr. Trump had a “mandate” for his vision of government, including trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, after his stunning upset victory over Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Ryan described a United States under Mr. Trump as a different place than it has been, saying that the president-elect would be a champion of the many Americans who do not like the direction of the country and “don’t feel heard and don’t feel represented by the people in office.”

Mr. Ryan, who chose in October to stop campaigning for Mr. Trump after revelations about his past offensive language about women, said that he had “spoken with Donald twice in the last 18 hours” and that the president-elect “will lead a unified Republican government.”

“We talked about the work ahead of us, and the importance of bringing the nation together,” Mr. Ryan said at a news conference in his hometown, Janesville, Wis. “This needs to be a time of redemption, not a time of recrimination.”

Mr. Ryan could have been hinting at his own fate. There are a more than a few restless conservatives in Mr. Ryan’s conference in the House who had been agitating for the speaker’s ouster before the election because of his failure to fully embrace Mr. Trump. And whether that discontent will now die down is far from clear.
Other Republicans who made their reservations about Mr. Trump proudly known before the election tried to be gracious, though some sounded more skeptical than optimistic.

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who became a public face of the anti-Trump faction on Capitol Hill, said he and his family had asked God to steer Mr. Trump in the right direction. “We pray that he will lead wisely and faithfully keep his oath to a Constitution of limited government,” Mr. Sasse said in a statement. Then he promised to hold Mr. Trump to his word. “Starting today, I will do everything in my power to hold the president to his promises,” Mr. Sasse said.

Others conservatives seemed to welcome Mr. Trump as the means to an end that they could all agree on: the dismantling of the parts of the Obama legislative legacy that they found so egregious, particularly the Affordable Care Act and his executive actions on immigration.

“Americans voted for Republicans because of a promise to go to Washington to reverse our current course, and end the Washington cartel — a promise to drain the swamp,” said Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a former Trump rival for the Republican nomination, adopting the slogan that Mr. Trump used as his closing argument to voters. “Now is the time to follow through on those words with action.”

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, another of Mr. Trump’s former primary rivals, even speculated that the reversal of Mr. Obama’s achievements would begin within the first month of a Trump administration.

“This is something I’m excited to do,” Mr. Paul said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I think you’re going to find that we’re going to repeal a half dozen or so of regulations that are killing jobs and making us less competitive with the rest of the world.”

Democratic leaders were largely silent, refraining from making provocative statements on Twitter or elsewhere, as they waited to hear more from Mr. Trump. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, who is expected to become the next Democratic minority leader in the Senate, and is one of the party’s toughest brawlers, issued a conciliatory statement noting that Mr. Trump had called him on Wednesday morning.

Elsewhere, the transition of power seemed to be unfolding in an orderly fashion. Word came from the Pentagon on Wednesday morning that Mr. Trump would be receiving the same classified intelligence briefings as the president. The defense secretary, Ashton B. Carter, issued a statement declaring that he was committed to an orderly passing of power to the next commander in chief.

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Protester who sparked Donald Trump assassination fear says he was battered for no reason

THE protester who sparked fears Donald Trump was about to be assassinated at a rally last night has revealed he was holding nothing but a sign.

Austyn Crites has claimed Trump fans kicked and chocked him while the presidential candidate was bundled off stage by his security guards.

There was a frenzy of chaos at the rally in Nevada last night after someone shouted “gun” – despite Crites carrying only a sign.

He told the Guardian: “People started going crazy.
“These people couldn’t grab the sign – they start tackling me, and then just piled on, and someone yelled something about a gun.

“I was yelling down there, ‘There is no gun! I only have a sign! I only have a sign!

“But there were people wrenching on my neck so hard they could have strangled me to death. Other people were grabbing at my balls. Other people were kicking me. It was absolutely nuts.”

Two suited secret service officers pulled the Presidential hopeful away from the microphone and rushing him backstage in Reno, Nevada.

Other secret service agents pinned the man, later identified as Reno-native and registered Republican Austyn Crites, to the floor. Crites, 33, was then manhandled out of the room as heavily-armed police officers flooded into the room. He has since been released.

A Secret Service spokesman later said that after a “thorough” search no gun was found in the venue or on the Crytes.

The 70-year-old was half an hour into a speech when an audience member shouted: “He’s got a gun” and indicated a shaven-headed man in the crowd.

Speaking to The Guardian, Crites said he had worked his way to the front of the crowd to hold up a sign reading “Republicans against Trump” which he had printed off the internet.

The crowd jeered after he raised the sign, Crites said, but then “all of a sudden people next to me are starting to get violent; they’re grabbing at my arm, trying to rip the sign out of my hand.”

At that point Crites claims the crowd “piled on” and he heard someone in the crowd shout “something about a gun” after he hit the floor.

Crites described the Republican nominee for the Presidency as “a textbook version of a dictator and a fascist”.
He also said he did not blame the crowd for their actions: “The people who attached me – I’m not blaming them. I’m blaming Donald Trump’s hate rhetoric.”

Austyn Crites was holding a sign saying ‘Republicans against Trump’ when he was manhandled by security staff
Crites has since written on Facebook: “Take what happened tonight as a classic example of dictator incitement of violence – against your own Republican brother with a stupid sign.”

Republican tycoon Trump reappeared at the Reno Convention Center several minutes after Crites had been removed to cheers from fans, declaring: “Nobody said it was going to be easy for us, but we will never ever be stopped.”
But, Trump’s campaign staff highlighted the incident to contrast Trump with his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton on Twitter.

Dan Scavino, social media director for Trump’s campaign retweeted a supporter who wrote: “Hillary (Clinton) ran away from rain today. Trump is back on stage minutes after assassination attempt.”

The GOP nominee began his day in Tampa, Florida, before racing to Wilmington in North Carolina and Reno.
He planned to end the night at a rally in Denver, Colorado.

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Trump, Clinton blitz across the country in final push amid tightening polls

Democrat Hillary Clinton will spend the final days of the election trying to protect her lead in key battlegrounds, reflecting a tightening, unusually volatile race against Republican Donald Trump.

Trump, whose electoral college prospects are narrower, is now banking on a late-hour attempt to win at least one blue-leaning state — and to dramatically drive up turnout in rural areas in a collection of battlegrounds where he must prevail on Tuesday.

With four days left on the campaign trail, both candidates and surrogates blitzed across the country Friday, making stops in states where polls have narrowed in recent days. The frenzied final days also include celebrity appearances — Jay Z headlined a get-out-the-vote show with Clinton in Cleveland, while Stevie Wonder played “Love Trumps Hate” show on her behalf in Philadelphia — and endless ads airing in battleground states.

Clinton stopped in Pennsylvania and Michigan on Friday, two states where she has consistently led Trump, as well as Ohio. She brought a new urgency to her message at a rally in Pittsburgh, focusing on the danger that a Trump presidency would present to the country and asking supporters to imagine Trump taking the oath of office in front of the Capitol and being in charge of the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

“Think about what it would mean to entrust the nuclear codes to someone with a very thin skin who lashes out at anyone who challenges him,” Clinton said. “Imagine how easy it would be that Donald Trump would feel insulted and start a real war, not just a Twitter war at 3 in the morning.”

While talking about gun violence at a rally in Detroit, Nov. 4, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton asked if supporters had seen the new fashion choice of her rival Donald Trump, “a camo hat.”

While talking about gun violence at a rally in Detroit, Nov. 4, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton asked if supporters had seen the new fashion choice of her rival Donald Trump, “a camo hat.” Hillary Clinton asks if supporters in Detroit have seen the new fashion choice of her rival Donald Trump, “a camo hat.” (The Washington Post)
Clinton urged supporters to stage “an intervention” with friends and family members who plan to vote for Trump by explaining to them that “anger is not a plan.”

“Sometimes the fate of the greatest nations comes down to a single moment,” Clinton said. “This is one of those make-or-break moments for the United States. This is in your hands.”

Trump continued a tour of small towns in rural counties on Friday, first stopping at a country club in Atkinson, N.H. He continued to Wilmington, Ohio, between Cincinnati and Columbus. He planned to end the day in Hershey, Pa.

Besides reminding supporters of Clinton’s scandals, Trump focused on promises to return lost manufacturing jobs, protect residents from what he described as dangerous undocumented immigrants and get rid of crime in faraway major cities.

“Don’t let the pundits, the politicians or the media tell you what kind of a country you have,” Trump said in Wilmington. “Don’t let them limit your dreams because they want to limit your dreams. You can have any future you want.”

The final-days travel schedules of Trump and his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, reflect a dire need to win vote-rich swing states including Florida and North Carolina, where Trump will campaign on Saturday.

The latest Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll shows Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in a dead heat nationally.

Lately, Trump has made many stops in out-of-the-way places, most of which are already guaranteed to break heavily for Republicans.

His advisers say they think he can win over rural whites by a much bigger margin than Republican nominee Mitt Romney did in 2012 — and come away with significantly more votes, which they gamble will offset his weakness among suburban Republicans in battleground states.

As part of a bid to steal a blue-leaning Midwestern state, Trump will also return to Wisconsin on Sunday, a state that a Republican nominee has not won since 1984. The many white, blue-collar voters in the state have raised hopes among Trump and his allies that he has a chance there.

Although Clinton, in contrast, needs only to hold on to leads in the states where she is ahead, she intends to fight for votes beyond those, her campaign manager, Robby Mook, said Friday.

“We built our operation for a wide map from the beginning of the campaign,” Mook said in a phone call with reporters.

And while Trump is trying to drive up turnout among white voters, Clinton is putting a premium on minority voters, who polls suggest are likely to break heavily in her favor.
Mook touted what he called “the Hillary coalition” — Latinos, Asians, African Americans, suburban women and millennials — that he said have on the whole been turning out in strong numbers in battleground states where there’s early voting.
Mook said the campaign is confident its early vote totals will amount to “a firewall” on Election Day, or as he described it, “a lead that Donald Trump is incapable of overcoming.”

He cited several states where Clinton stands to benefit from the strong early voting turnout, particularly among Latinos, including Florida, Nevada and North Carolina.
In Michigan on Friday, Clinton made a pitch aimed at boosting African American turnout in a state where her advisers have suggested Trump could be doing better, given its manufacturing losses and large population of working-class whites, Trump’s strongest constituency.

At a rally in Detroit, Clinton talked about issues including criminal justice reform, college affordability and systemic racism, all of which are of particular importance to black voters. She also criticized Trump for portraying the lives of black people as being “all about crime and poverty and despair.”

“We’re doing everything we can to make sure that we get the numbers that we need,” Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, told reporters earlier Friday. “Michigan is a state that we feel like we’ve got a lead, and we want to make sure that we hold that lead.
“We want to make sure that we get the vote out and make sure people are enthusiastic. We want to end with a crescendo of enthusiasm,” he said.

The Clinton campaign also starting airing television ads in Michigan for the first time in the general election this week.

Trump will make one last swing through two western battleground states: Colorado and Nevada. He also plans to campaign in Iowa, a state where he has performed consistently well in the polls in recent months.

And Trump is slated to hold his final event before Election Day on Monday night in New Hampshire, the state where he notched his first primary win.

Polls have shown Clinton leading in New Hampshire for a long time, but recent surveys signal a turn in Trump’s direction. New Hampshire’s many white, working-class voters — as well as its independent streak — make it a volatile place where Republicans hope voters will break late toward Trump.

Clinton’s schedule is being driven in part by a desire to make stops in states that have not had early voting, in hopes of providing a burst of momentum ahead of Tuesday.

The schedule of Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine of Virginia, illustrates the campaign’s dual focus of trying to protect leads as well as contest close states.

On Monday, Kaine will return to his home town of Richmond to rally voters in Virginia, a state where Clinton’s lead has dwindled in recent weeks.
The plans of the two tickets also highlight a Democratic advantage that will be on full display in coming days: a much stronger and deeper bench of surrogates that can fan out across the country.

Besides Clinton and her running mate, the Democrats are also dispatching a sitting president, a former president, a sitting vice president, a popular first lady and Clinton’s former primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

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FBI fear of leaks drove decision on emails linked to Clinton: sources

WASHINGTON: FBI Director James Comey was driven in part by a fear of leaks from within his agency when he decided to tell Congress the FBI was investigating newly discovered emails related to Hillary Clinton, law enforcement sources said on Thursday.

The examination of the email traffic is now being carried out under the tightest secrecy by a team at Federal Bureau of Investigations headquarters in Washington, the sources said, requesting anonymity because of the inquiry’s sensitivity.

Several sources said it was unclear whether the FBI would make any further public disclosures about its latest review before Tuesday’s presidential and congressional elections. Two sources said such disclosures were unlikely.
Another source, recently in contact with top investigators, said: “It depends on how it goes and what they find.” The source said that, as of Thursday, “nobody really knows” whether the FBI will have anything further to say before the election.

Dropping like a bombshell on the U.S. presidential campaign, Comey’s disclosure last Friday in a letter to senior lawmakers just days before the elections raised questions about his motives and drew criticism from some over his timing.

Comey disclosed that the FBI was looking at emails as part of a probe into Clinton’s use of a private email system while secretary of state, without describing the emails’ content or how long the inquiry might take. The FBI normally does not comment on ongoing inquiries.

The latest emails examination was moving forward “expeditiously,” said one source close to the review.
The new emails turned up as FBI investigators were examining electronic devices used by former Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner in connection with an alleged “sexting” scandal. Weiner’s estranged wife, Huma Abedin, is a Clinton confidante.

Two law enforcement sources familiar with the FBI’s New York Field Office, which initially discovered the emails, said a faction of investigators based in the office is known to be hostile to Hillary Clinton. A spokeswoman for the FBI’s New York office said she had no knowledge about this.

Democratic Party sources said such a faction was likely responsible for a recent surge in media leaks on alleged details of an ongoing FBI investigation of the Clinton Foundation.

The FBI has made preliminary inquiries into Clinton Foundation activities and alleged contacts between Trump and associates with parties in Russia, according to law enforcement sources. But these inquiries were shifted into low gear weeks ago because the FBI wanted to avoid any impact on the election.

The FBI previously had spent about a year investigating Clinton’s use of the unauthorized server at her home in Chappaqua, New York, instead of the State Department system after classified government secrets were found in some of her emails.

Comey had said in July that while there was “evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Jonathan Oatis)

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Taliban envoys travel to Pakistan to discuss Afghanistan peace talks

Islamabad, Oct 21 – Senior members of the Taliban’s political commission based in Qatar have travelled to Pakistan for discussions with security officials there about possible peace talks with the Afghan government.

The development follows the revelation this week that Taliban officials held two rounds of secret talks with Afghanistan’s spy chief and a senior US diplomat in the capital of the Gulf state, Doha, this month and last month – meetings Pakistan was excluded from despite its long association with the Islamist movement.

Two sources within the insurgency told the Guardian that a trio of Taliban diplomats left Doha on Wednesday with a mission to hold talks with Pakistani officials.

“The visiting Afghan Taliban delegation will discuss various topics, including peace talks, and share the latest information with Pakistan,” a senior official told the Guardian.

The men are Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar, a former ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Jan Muhammad Madani, a former foreign minister under the Taliban regime in the 1990s, and Mullah Abdul Salam, a former deputy education minister.

The Taliban official said the discussions being held in Pakistan follow successful contacts made with both Afghan and US officials in recent months.

“Taliban and the Americans have been engaged in a number of rounds of talks in Qatar,” he said. “They have made some progress, on a very zigzag path. God willing, we hope further talks will create progress.”

Last year Pakistan succeeded in establishing itself as the host and broker of an effort to end the 15-year insurgency in Afghanistan. Islamabad managed to bring Taliban, US and Chinese diplomats around the same table at a breakthrough meeting in the Pakistani hill resort of Murree in July 2015.

But a scheduled second meeting never took place after the Afghan government confirmed that the former Taliban leader Mullah Omar had died years previously and that the movement had been run in his name by Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.

After a bitter leadership fight, Mansoor formally became the Taliban leader but showed little interest in re-engaging in the Pakistan-brokered process.

Mansoor was killed by a US drone strike in May, creating further uncertainty about the chances of peace talks.
Although Pakistan has been a key ally for the Taliban during both its rise to power in the 1990s and its re-emergence as an anti-Nato insurgency after 2001, some within the movement resent Pakistani interference in the Taliban’s affairs.

A Taliban official who talked to the Guardian said the group’s current leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, had sought to “speed up” talks with Kabul and the US.

He said: “Pakistan and the rest of the neighbours will be gradually brought on board. Pakistan is an important neighbour and no doubt they will want to be involved.”

But a western official who was aware that at least two of the Taliban envoys had travelled to Pakistan said the envoys’ meeting was unlikely to be related to the recent Doha talks.

The official said it was an attempt by Islamabad to wrest back control and escape “immense US pressure and international isolation”.

“They and a group from Quetta are talking to the Pakistanis about a Pakistan-led process,” the official said. “This is a separate initiative to escape US and Chinese pressure.”

The official said some within the Taliban had objected to the way members of the political commission appear to have been summoned to Islamabad.

The Taliban is split between rival factions, both among and between commanders on the battlefield in Afghanistan and those living inside Pakistan. Bitter divides exist over whether to pursue peace talks or not, as well as over the control of money and resources.

The western official described the current situation within the movement as “chaos as normal”.

Quoting a Taliban official, the Associated Press reported this week that the head of the Doha office had not taken part in the talks with the Afghan government, reflecting “a continuing power struggle within the movement over who should run the Qatar office”.

A Pakistani intelligence official declined to comment on the latest claims.

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Donald Trump just keeps having the Worst Week in Washington

Trump's accusers (Credit: cnn.com)
Trump’s accusers
(Credit: cnn.com)

It was the week when the wheels truly fell off Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Still reeling from the release of a tape in which he is heard making lewd and sexually suggestive comments about women, Trump watched as a parade of accusers emerged last week, each telling a similar story: He had tried to grope, grab or kiss them sometime over the past three decades.

Trump has categorically denied each and every one of the charges. But his promised “evidence” to dispute the claims amounted to a single statement from a cousin of Summer Zervos, a contestant on “The Apprentice” who alleged that Trump kissed and groped her.  And he made things worse by insisting in campaign speeches that he could never have groped the women he is accused of groping because, well, they simply aren’t attractive enough.

‘She would not be my first choice’: Trump denies sexually assaulting Jessica Leeds on plane

The allegations of groping seemed to send Trump off into an even-less-disciplined stage of his campaign, which, at this point, is barely lurching its way to the finish line. Trump spent the week alleging a global conspiracy against him and his supporters, a conspiracy that virtually everyone — Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the media, corporations — was in on.

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And he repeatedly insisted that the entire election was rigged, the outcome predetermined by forces dead set on keeping him from the White House.

Along the way, Trump also suggested that Clinton might have been on drugs in the second debate, disassembled a malfunctioning teleprompter on stage and veered wildly off message time and time and time again.

With every passing minute, Trump watched his base grow ever more committed to him while pushing away the loosely affiliated Republican voters and independents he so badly needs if he wants to have a real shot at beating Clinton. That prospect looks increasingly dim, and what’s worse for Republicans is that Trump doesn’t even seem to care.

Donald Trump, for taking the shackles off, you had the Worst Week in Washington. Congrats, or something

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U.S. blacklists Pakistan nationals on suspicion of money laundering

The United States blacklisted four men and their companies based in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, for purported ties to an organisation accused of laundering money for drug traffickers and Chinese, Colombian and Mexican crime groups.

Among them was Pakistani national Obaid Khanani, whose father Altaf Khanani was arrested by U.S. authorities in September 2015 and accused by the U.S. Treasury Department of laundering billions of dollars for the Taliban and other groups.
The department said in a statement that Obaid Khanani, 29, continued to help lead his father’s money laundering organization after the arrest. Altaf Khanani is set to be tried on money laundering charges in Miami this month, according to federal court records.

Another man on the list, Hozaifa Khanani, also 29, is Altaf Khanani’s nephew and was involved in real estate investments on behalf of his uncle’s organization, the Treasury Department said. Muhammad Javed Khanani, Altaf Khanani’s brother, was “heavily involved in laundering criminal proceeds via money service businesses” Treasury said. It said a fourth man, Atif Polani, helped move funds on behalf of Khanani’s organization.

The sanctions block any assets the men or companies might have had in the United States, and bars Americans from dealing with them.

“Treasury remains committed to combating illicit money laundering networks around the world and today’s action is the result of close coordination with our partners in the United Arab Emirates,” said John E. Smith, acting director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which imposes sanctions.

The department also blacklisted several businesses based in Pakistan and Dubai for either being owned by the men or being linked to money laundering.

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and Joel Schectman; editing by Grant McCool)

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Three mysterious incidents in New York, New Jersey and Minnesota raise fears of terrorism

NEW YORK, Sept 18 — Authorities are investigating three incidents — explosions in New York and New Jersey and a stabbing attack in Minnesota — that took place within a 12-hour period on Saturday and sowed fears of terrorism.

Officials said they could identify no definitive links between the disturbances — a bombing that hurt 29 in Chelsea, an explosion along the route of a scheduled race in Seaside Park, N.J., and a stabbing that wounded nine in a St. Cloud, Minn., mall.

But each incident in its own right raised the possibility of terrorist connections, prompting federal and local law enforcement to pour major resources into determining exactly what happened and why.

A news agency linked to the Islamic State claimed Sunday that the suspect in Minnesota, who was fatally shot by an off-duty police officer, was “a soldier” of the militant group, though there was no confirmation of what connection the man may have had.

A claim of responsibility is no guarantee that the terrorist group directed or even inspired the attack, and authorities said they were still exploring a precise motive. The terrorist group made no similar claims about the New York and New Jersey incidents.

In New York, authorities said there was no evidence that the mysterious Saturday-night explosion was motivated by international terrorism, though they confirmed that the bombing was intentional.

“This is the nightmare scenario,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said.

The governor said nearly 1,000 police officers and National Guard troops would be sent to bus stops, train stations and airports, as investigators with the New York Police Department, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives worked to identify the person or people responsible for the explosion.

A federal law enforcement official said investigators were still aggressively probing if the New York and New Jersey incidents were related, though the official cautioned that as of Sunday afternoon they had not tied them together definitively.

Those injured in the Saturday-night blast in Chelsea had been released from hospitals by Sunday.
The Manhattan explosion occurred about 8:30 p.m. Saturday in the area of West 23rd Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, injuring 29 people as it hurled glass and debris into the air, officials said. Surveillance video showed passersby running to get away from the blast, and investigators said they would comb through that and older footage to try to identify those responsible.

Authorities said the explosion was produced by some type of bomb, and they posted on Twitter a photo of what appeared to be a mangled Dumpster or garbage container. Masum Chaudry, who manages a Domino’s Pizza near the scene, said the explosion “shook the whole building” and caused “total chaos.”

Cuomo said, “When you see the amount of damage, we really were very lucky there were no fatalities.”
A short time after the explosion, just a few blocks away, police found another potentially explosive device, which looked like a pressure cooker with wiring, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. Both that device and the remnants of that which exploded will be sent to the FBI’s lab in Quantico, Va., for analysis, authorities said. Pressure cookers were used in the two bombs detonated at the Boston Marathon in 2013.

Sara Miller, who was at a restaurant two blocks from the site of explosion, said she heard the blast, then saw people scrambling to get away. “I was here on September 11th so I thought, maybe, you know, I was being paranoid … but then I saw people running,” said Miller, 42. “It is a scary time because you never know when it will happen again.”

Officials differed on whether to call the Saturday night explosion an act of terrorism. Cuomo said: “It depends on your definition of terrorism. A bomb exploding in New York is obviously an act of terrorism, but it’s not linked to international terrorism.”

City, police and FBI officials said it was too early to determine any type of motivation, though they insisted they would not shy from labeling the crime an act of terror if it became appropriate to do so.

“We do not know the motivation. We do not know the nature of it. That’s what we have to do more work on,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who shied away from labeling the attack as terrorism.

The incident comes as foreign leaders, including many heads of state, are heading to Manhattan for the United Nations General Assembly. Secretary of State John F. Kerry arrived Saturday, while Obama is scheduled to head to the city on Monday.

This annual meeting — held more than two miles from the site of the explosion in Chelsea — is traditionally a challenging time for New York, as many roads are shut down and the heavy security leads to traffic jams.

Officials said they had already prepared to beef up security, and now they would intensify those efforts.
On the campaign trail, the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates offered varied reactions to news of the incident. As early reports circulated Saturday night, Donald Trump declared that a “bomb went off” in New York City and said: “We better get very, very tough. We’ll find out. It’s a terrible thing that’s going on in our world, in our country and we are going to get tough and smart and vigilant. … We’ll see what it is. We’ll see what it is.”

Hillary Clinton condemned what she characterized as the “apparent terrorist attacks” in Minnesota, New Jersey and New York.

“This should steel our resolve to protect our country and defeat ISIS and other terrorist groups,” Clinton said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. She added, “I have laid out a comprehensive plan to do that.”

Moyed Abu, 28, a manager of OMG, a jeans store on 7th Avenue, said he and two employees were in the store at the time of the blast. Abu said they assumed initially it was construction noise — but immediately saw dozens of people, though not everyone, running in both directions, Abu said.

“I saw that some people started to take pictures,” he said. “In this situation, it’s better to just leave! It’s not safe!”

The Chelsea explosion occurred about 11 hours after a pipe bomb exploded in a Jersey Shore garbage can, shortly before a scheduled charity 5K race to benefit Marines and Navy sailors. No one was hurt.

Officials said that device, too, would be sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, though Cuomo noted the pipe bombs used in New Jersey “appear to be different” than those in New York.

New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said officials would explore a possible connection between the two cases but noted, “At this point, there doesn’t appear to be one.”

Two law enforcement officials said residue of tannerite — used primarily for making exploding targets for firearms practice — was found in material that had detonated in New York. The officials said a cellphone was used in both the New York and the New Jersey cases.

In another incident Saturday night in Minnesota, a man who made reference to Allah and asked at least one person whether he or she were Muslim stabbed and wounded nine people inside a Minnesota mall. He was shot to death by an off-duty police officer. On Sunday, the Islamic State claimed that the attacker was “a soldier of the Islamic State” and “carried out the operation in response to calls to target the citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition.”

A law enforcement official said Sunday that officials were examining all the devices, reviewing surveillance footage and combing through social media. Another official said that there was no clear suspect as of Sunday afternoon but that the investigation was in its very early stages.

“Whoever placed these bombs, we will find, and they will be brought to justice,” Cuomo said.

Some New Yorkers, though, said they felt uneasy waiting. Leonard Glass, 55, who walked 20 blocks from the upper West Side of Manhattan to the site of the explosion early Sunday afternoon, said that no one had taken responsibility for the explosion made it worse.

“I hope this is something else,” he said. “Not terrorism.”

Zapotosky and Wang reported from Washington. Renae Merle in New York and Mark Berman, Ellen Nakashima, Kristine Guerra, Sari Horwitz, Sean Sullivan, Steven Overly, John Wagner and Julie Tate contributed to this report, which has been updated.