Kushner Cos. filed false NYC housing paperwork
NEW YORK — When the Kushner Cos. bought three apartment buildings in a gentrifying neighborhood of Queens in 2015, most of the tenants were protected by special rules that prevent developers from pushing them out, raising rents and turning a tidy profit.
But that’s exactly what the company then run by Jared Kushner did, and with remarkable speed. Two years later, it sold all three buildings for $60 million, nearly 50 percent more than it paid.
Now a clue has emerged as to how President Donald Trump’s son-in-law’s firm was able to move so fast: The Kushner Cos. routinely filed false paperwork with the city declaring it had zero rent-regulated tenants in dozens of buildings it owned across the city when, in fact, it had hundreds.
While none of the documents during a three-year period when Kushner was CEO bore his personal signature, they provide a window into the ethics of the business empire he ran before he went on to become one of the most trusted advisers to the president of the United States.
“It’s bare-faced greed,” said Aaron Carr, founder of Housing Rights Initiative, a tenants’ rights watchdog that compiled the work permit application documents and shared them with The Associated Press. “The fact that the company was falsifying all these applications with the government shows a sordid attempt to avert accountability and get a rapid return on its investment.”
A frustrated Trump lashes out at special counsel Mueller
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Sunday took out his frustrations over the intensifying Russia investigation by lashing out at special counsel Robert Mueller, signaling a possible shift away from a strategy of cooperating with a probe he believes is biased against him.
In a series of weekend tweets naming Mueller for the first time, Trump criticized the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and raised fresh concerns about the objectivity and political leanings of the members of Mueller’s team.
Trump also challenged the honesty of Andrew McCabe, the newly fired FBI deputy director, and James Comey, the bureau’s former director whom Trump fired last year over the Russia probe.
The president’s aggressive stance followed a call Saturday by his personal lawyer for Rod Rosenstein, whom Trump appointed as deputy attorney general and who now oversees Mueller’s inquiry, to “bring an end” to that investigation.
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, which spent the past year conducting a parallel investigation, recently said they had drafted a report concluding no collusion or coordination between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia. Committee Democrats vehemently disagreed.
Turkey-backed forces capture Syrian Kurdish town of Afrin
ISTANBUL — Turkish military and allied Syrian forces marched into the center of the northern Syrian town of Afrin Sunday, raising their flags and shooting in the air in celebration nearly two months after launching their offensive on the Kurdish enclave. The advancing troops faced little resistance from the Kurdish militia that retreated and vowed to turn to guerrilla tactics.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the capture of Afrin, previously controlled by the Kurdish militia known as the People’s Defense Units, or YPG.
“Many of the terrorists had turned tail and run away already,” Erdogan said in a speech in western Turkey. “In Afrin’s center, it is no longer the rags of the terror organization that are waving but rather the symbols of peace and security.”
The Kurdish militia called the assault on Afrin an “occupation” and vowed a “new phase” of guerrilla tactics against Turkish troops and its allied Syrian fighters.
It is not clear what Turkey would do after the capture of Afrin. Turkey views the Kurdish forces in the Afrin enclave along the border as terrorists linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency within Turkey’s borders.
Death penalty for drug traffickers part of Trump opioid plan
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s plan to combat opioid drug addiction nationwide calls for stiffer penalties for drug traffickers, including the death penalty where appropriate under current law, a top administration official said Sunday. It’s a fate for drug dealers that Trump, who aims to be seen as tough on crime, has been highlighting publicly in recent weeks.
Trump also wants Congress to pass legislation reducing the amount of drugs needed to trigger mandatory minimum sentences for traffickers who knowingly distribute certain illicit opioids, said Andrew Bremberg, Trump’s domestic policy director, who briefed reporters Sunday on the plan Trump is scheduled to unveil Monday in New Hampshire, a state hard-hit by the crisis.
The president will be joined by first lady Melania Trump, who has shown an interest in the issue, particularly as it pertains to her focus on child welfare.
Death for drug traffickers and mandatory minimum penalties for distributing certain opioids are just two elements under the part of Trump’s plan that deals with law enforcement and interdiction to break the international and domestic flow of drugs into and across the U.S.
Other parts of the plan include broadening education and awareness, and expanding access to proven treatment and recovery efforts.
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Putin calls UK accusations over ex-spy poisoning ‘nonsense’
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday dismissed British accusations of Russia’s involvement in an ex-spy’s poisoning as “nonsense,” but added that Moscow is ready to cooperate with London in the investigation.
In his first comments on the incident, Putin referred to the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter as a “tragedy,” but added that if the British claim that they were poisoned by the Soviet-designed nerve agent were true, the victims would have been killed instantly.
Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer convicted in his home country of spying for Britain, and his daughter have remained in critical condition following the March 4 poisoning.
“It’s quite obvious that if it were a military-grade nerve agent, people would have died on the spot,” he said. “Russia doesn’t have such means. We have destroyed all our chemical weapons under international oversight unlike some of our partners.”
Putin’s comments came a few hours after British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said he has evidence that Russia has been stockpiling a nerve agent in violation of international law “very likely for the purposes of assassination.”
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Northeast snowstorms give ski areas late season powder blast
FAYSTON, Vt. — Back-to-back nor’easters that have pounded New England have given ski resorts a late-season blast of their life’s blood, luring skiers and snowboarders to the slopes, and allowing smaller ski areas that rely on natural snow to stay open.
From Vermont to Maine, skiers and riders were cheering the mounds of snow.
“It’s amazing,” said Tim Austin, of Brentwood, New Hampshire, as he waited Thursday to board the single person chairlift at Mad River Glen in Fayston, Vermont.
March storms have dumped over 5 feet of snow on Vermont resorts, with Mount Snow in southern Vermont living up to its name; 66 inches have fallen just this month there, according to the Vermont Ski Association.
“It’s the best March in years,” said skier Gregg Fitzgerald, of Starksboro, Vermont, as he took a break at Mad River on Thursday.