In Brief: July 12, 2020

Mueller defends Russia probe, says Stone remains a felon

WASHINGTON — Former special counsel Robert Mueller sharply defended his investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, writing in a newspaper opinion piece Saturday that the probe was of “paramount importance” and asserting that a Trump ally, Roger Stone, “remains a convicted felon, and rightly so” despite the president’s decision to commute his prison sentence.

The op-ed in The Washington Post marked Mueller’s first public statement on his investigation since his congressional appearance last July. It represented his firmest defense of the two-year probe whose results have come under attack and even been partially undone by the Trump administration, including the president’s extraordinary move Friday evening to grant clemency to Stone just days before he was due to report to prison.

Mueller wrote that though he had intended for his team’s work to speak for itself, he felt compelled to “respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office.

“The Russia investigation was of paramount importance. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so,” Mueller wrote.

Mueller did not specify who was making the claims, but it appeared to be an obvious reference to Trump, who as recently as Saturday derided the investigation as this “whole political witch hunt and the Mueller scam.”

Trump’s defiant help for Stone adds to tumult in Washington

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s intervention into a criminal case connected to his own conduct drew fierce rebukes Saturday from Democrats and a few lonely Republicans, with calls for investigations and legislation.

But it remained to be seen if Trump’s most recent defiance of the conventions of his office to commute the sentence of political confidant Roger Stone, just four months before Election Day, would matter to voters grappling with a deadly COVID-19 surge and a national discourse on racial justice.

Shortly before heading out Saturday morning for his Virginia golf club, Trump made unfounded accusations against his political foes while taking another swipe at special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which led to convictions for six Trump aides or advisers, including Stone, a larger-than-life political character who embraced his reputation as a dirty trickster.

“Roger Stone was targeted by an illegal Witch Hunt that never should have taken place,” Trump tweeted. “It is the other side that are criminals, including Biden and Obama, who spied on my campaign – AND GOT CAUGHT!”

Trump has long sought vengeance against the Russia investigation that helped define his first two years in office. And now that the coronavirus pandemic has imperiled his reelection chances by crushing the economy and sending his poll numbers sliding, he has taken to testing the limits of his power in order to reward loyalty and fire up his conservative base.

US Navy welcomes 1st Black female Tactical Aircraft pilot

KINGSVILLE, Texas — The U.S. Navy has welcomed its first Black female Tactical Aircraft pilot.

“MAKING HISTORY!” the U.S. Navy tweeted Thursday in response to a post that Lt. j.g. Madeline Swegle had completed naval flight school and would later this month receive the flight officer insignia known as the “Wings of Gold.”

The Naval Air Training Command tweeted that Swegle is the Navy’s “first known Black female TACAIR pilot.”

According to Stars and Stripes, Swegle is from Burke, Virginia, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2017.

Officials said she is assigned to the Redhawks of Training Squadron 21 in Kingsville, Texas.

2 officers killed in shootout in south Texas border town

MCALLEN, Texas — Two police officers were shot and killed Saturday in a South Texas border town after reportedly responding to a disturbance call, authorities said.

The McAllen police officers were shot on the south side of the city and transported to an area hospital, said Lt. Christopher Olivarez, spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. A suspect in the shooting was also shot, though that person’s condition was not immediately available.

“We have lost two brave public servants who sought only to keep peace in our City,” McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez told The (McAllen) Monitor.

Olivarez said DPS sent troopers to secure the scene after the McAllen Police Department requested their assistance. He said his agency received a call about the incident around 4:30 p.m. McAllen is located at the southern tip of Texas, about 70 miles west of the Gulf of Mexico.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted that his office will provide the McAllen Police Department with any help needed.

Video calls, separate bedrooms: Bolsonaro’s first COVID week

BRASILIA, Brazil — After months in which Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro downplayed COVID-19 by flouting social distancing recommendations and mostly shunning masks, both coronavirus precautions became part of his cloistered life this week at the official residence in capital Brasilia.

Bolsonaro, 65, announced on Tuesday that he tested positive for the virus and had experienced fever, aches and malaise. He scrapped a trip he had planned to northeastern Piauí state, and all his meetings for the week were converted to video calls.

One was with former congressman Roberto Jefferson, president of the conservative PTB party. Jefferson told The Associated Press that he went to the presidential Planalto Palace and sat in front of a large television where he could see Bolsonaro in a makeshift office at his residence.

“I found the president well, flushed, willing. In very good health,” Jefferson said Saturday. “I only saw him cough once, when I made a joke.”

Since his diagnosis, Bolsonaro has held virtual meetings almost every day with Jorge Oliveira, secretary-general of government, to sign official documents. According to Oliveira’s office, a protocol was created so work could be carried out digitally.

From wire sources

Biden forges brand of liberal populism to use against Trump

WASHINGTON — Joe Biden stood in a Pennsylvania metal works shop, just miles from his boyhood home, and pledged to define his presidency by a sweeping economic agenda beyond anything Americans have seen since the Great Depression and the industrial mobilization for World War II.

The prospective Democratic presidential nominee promised the effort would not just answer a pandemic-induced recession, but address centuries of racism and systemic inequalities with “a new American economy” that “finally and fully (lives) up to the words and the values enshrined in the founding documents of this nation — that we’re all created equal.”

It was a striking call coming from Biden, a 77-year-old establishment figure known more as a back-slapping deal-maker than visionary reformer. But it made plain his intention to test the reach of liberal populism as he tries to create a coalition that can defeat President Donald Trump in November.

Trump and his Republican allies argue that Biden’s positioning, especially his ongoing work with progressives, proves he’s captive to a “radical” left wing. Conversely, activists who backed Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic primary were encouraged, yet cautious, about Biden’s ability to follow through while conceding that his plans on issues including climate action and criminal justice still fall short of their ideals.

Biden’s inner circle insists his approach in 2020 is the same it’s been since he was elected to the Senate in 1972: Meet the moment.

Sessions vies for Senate comeback in race shadowed by Trump

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Seeking a political comeback, former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is trying to beat out ex-college football coach Tommy Tuberville in Tuesday’s Republican primary runoff and reclaim the Alabama Senate seat he held for decades. To do that, Sessions also has to go through President Donald Trump.

Trump has endorsed Tuberville, whose name recognition comes from his time on the sidelines at Auburn University, and turned decisively against his former Cabinet member, making direct appeals for Alabama voters to reject Sessions’s candidacy. “Do not trust Jeff Sessions,” Trump tweeted this spring. “He let our Country down.”

The president weighed in again Saturday on Twitter, calling Tuberville “a winner who will never let you down” and castigating Sessions as “a disaster who has let us all down. We don’t want him back in Washington.” Sessions responded quickly: “My honor and integrity are far more important than these juvenile insults. … As you know, Alabama does not take orders from Washington.”

Sessions safely held the Senate seat for 20 years before resigning to lead Trump’s Justice Department. Their relationship soured after Sessions withdrew from the investigation of Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election, a move that infuriates Trump to this day. Sessions said he had no choice because he participated in Trump’s 2016 campaign and could have been a potential subject or witness.

He has asked voters to look past the feud. “I’m calling on the people of Alabama and I’m saying this. You know me. You know I can be trusted,” Sessions said during a campaign stop this past week.

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The Latest: Nevada lawmakers suspend session over virus case

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Nevada lawmakers have pumped the brakes on their emergency special session because someone in the legislative building has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Gov. Steve Sisolak has convened the session so lawmakers can balance the state budget amid a projected $1.2 billion shortfall stemming from the economic damage of the pandemic.

But on Friday staff members announced that someone in the building is infected with the virus, though the person shows no symptoms.

On Saturday, 13 Nevada lawmakers decided they would now participate remotely in the emergency session and both chambers agreed to recess until Monday morning. That will give time for legislators time to get tested and staff to answer a long list of questions that lawmakers have asked in hearings.

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