Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 3-20-18

White House And Political News
Controversial Firing Of Deputy Director Of FBI Will Be Part Of The Russian ‘Icing’
Six People Identified Among Dead In Pedestrian Bridge Collapse In Miami
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was fired by the Trump administration on the eve of his retirement — a move that will deny him the pen- sion he earned in over 20 years of service.
In the wake of his firing, Mc- Cabe released a statement to the media, he says he will be silent “no more” and says explic- itly that the campaign against him is part of a cover-up.
“I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey,” the statement reads, and he calls the effort to dis- credit him “part of a larger effort not just to slander me person- ally, but to taint the FBI, law en- forcement, and intelligence
Andrew McCabe was fired by the Trump administration on the eve of his retirement.
Navarro Brown was working on the bridge when it collapsed. He died at the hospital.
professionals more generally.” McCabe has been a FBI Special Agent for over 21 years. He spent half of that time inves- tigating Russian Organized Crime as a street agent and Su- pervisor in New York City. The second half of his career, he fo- cused on national security is- sues and protecting this country
from terrorism.
He said in his statement fol- lowing the firing, that the Trump administration’s “per- sistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the Special Counsel’s work” and in- sisting that “I have unfailing faith in the men and women of the FBI and I am confident that their efforts to seek justice will not be deterred.”
Emails Reveal Ben Carson Knew About Pricey Office Furniture
Emails published last Mon- day suggest that HUD Secre- tary Ben Carson and his wife were personally involved in re- decorating his government of- fice, which led to the purchase of a $31,000 dining set.
The emails show that Car- son and his wife Candy per- sonally picked the pieces, reports CNN. An email from August with the subject line “Secretary's dining room set needed" was sent to Carson’s assistant and mentioned “printouts of the furniture the Secretary and Mrs. Carson picked out."
HUD had been discussing office furniture for months with some of emails dating to last May and feature a discus-
Dr. Ben Carson and his wife, Candy.
sion between Carson’s aides about existing chairs that needed repairs.
The emails were acquired by liberal watchdog group Ameri- can Oversight via the Freedom of Information Act.
Earlier this month, several statements were released denying the Carsons’ involve-
ment in the order.
“New tables, chairs, in that
room whatsoever -- zero awareness of this purchase being made," Carson’s spokesman, who did not want to be named, said. "Neither one of them knew this pur- chase was being made. The secretary knew that the table and chairs were old because somebody fell out of a chair once. That's literally it. So they had nothing to do with the pur- chase, nothing to do with any- thing around that."
Carson also released a statement denying his involve- ment.
HUD spokesman Raffi Williams also defended the Carsons.
More Controversy At HUD; Senior Adviser Resigns After Lies Discovered On His Resume
Authorities released the names of five of the six people who died from the collapse of a newly-installed pedestrian bridge in Miami.
The bodies of three victims - - Rolando Fraga Hernan- dez, Oswald Gonzalez and Alberto Arias -- were found Saturday morning after crews removed two cars from the rub- ble left at the scene, Miami- Dade police said today.
The fourth identified victim, Navarro Brown, died at a hospital, police said.
A fifth person who died in the bridge collapse, Alexa Duran, 18, a student at Florida International Univer- sity, was identified by the Miami-Dade Police Depart- ment early Sunday morning.
Brown, 37, was working with VSL Structural Technolo- gies on raw pedestrian bridge connecting Florida Interna-
tional University's main cam- pus when he was killed.
Two other VSL Structural Technologies employees were injured.
Sen. Marco Rubio said Thursday night workers were tightening the cables when the collapse happened.
FIU President Mark Rosenberg said the bridge was undergoing testing the day of the collapse.
An engineer on the project left a voice mail that warned the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) about cracks on the bridge before the collapse, but the official who received the message was out of town and didn't open the message until a day after the collapse.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio stressed on Saturday that FDOT was a major player in the construction of the bridge.
Candidate Trump Campaigned For Loses; GOP Plan Defense
Democratic candidate Conor Lamb was declared the winner after polls closed in Pennsylvania. However the Re- publicans were relying on ab- sentee ballots to push their candidate, Rick Saccone to victory, now they want probe.
The special U. S. House elec- tion in Pennsylvania, where President Trump popped in twice to spew his regular in- sults and bully tactics appar- ently had adverse results.
With 100 percent of votes counted, Conor Lamb, a De- mocrat, had a 579-vote lead over Rick Saccone, a Repub- lican.
But according to reports, there are still a few thousand absentee ballots had not yet been counted, suggesting that no winner would be declared until March 26. And it was possible that a legal battle could ensue.
Mr. Lamb, a former Ma- rine, was introduced as “Con- gressman-elect” and exulted, “It took a little longer than we
thought, but we did it!”
House Democrats also did
not wait for a final count to claim victory, and House Re- publicans were already talking about a legal challenge, espe- cially since they pour $10 mil- lion into Saccone’s campaign. However, under Pennsylvania law, there is no automatic re- count in such a race, no matter how close.
According to the Pennsylva- nia election code, county elec- tion officials met three days after the election, on Friday, to begin reviewing the votes cast on election day and any provi- sional ballots. On March 21, eight days after the election, the counties will count any mil- itary or overseas ballots re- ceived by March 20.
Some counties have said they expect to take longer to approve their results.
Once county election offi- cials provide an initial signoff on the results, Republicans have five days to request a re- count.
Trump appointee, Naved Jafry, who called for radical privatization to fix America’s cities, stepped down last week, following inquiry from the Guardian about his record.
He said he was a multimil- lionaire – an international property developer with a plan to fix America’s cities through radical privatization. He felt that Donald Trump’s admin- istration was where he was meant to work.
Jafry was contracted to work for Trump at HUD. His government email signature said his title was senior adviser. Jafry said he used his role to advocate for “microcities”, where managers privately set their own laws and taxes away from central government con- trol.
But those plans are now stalled. Jafry, 38, said he had
Naved Jafry resigned on Thursday as HUD adviser.
resigned from his position with HUD after the Guardian asked him to explain multiple allega- tions of fraud, as well as exag- gerations in his biography.
Jafry, apologized for in- flating his military record, but denied making other false claims. He said he resigned be- cause the Guardian’s questions tarnished his reputation inside HUD.
Styling himself as an “entre- preneur and philanthropist”, Jafry said he controlled a mul- timillion-dollar trust fund built since 1885 by relatives in India. According to court records, however, he struggled to pay rent and bills while engaging in a series of failed takeovers of gas stations and other ventures in Texas over the past decade.
HUD officials declined to discuss Jafry. The finding may present a new problem for HUD secretary Ben Carson.
Also on last Thursday,
Sarah Sanders, Trump’s
press secretary, said the White House was “looking into” a con- troversy around a $31,000 fur- niture set ordered for Carson’s office. After Carson claimed he had no involvement, emails re- leased on last Wednesday said he and his wife actually “picked out” the set.
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