SCOTUS: NY DA Can Get Trump Tax Returns02/23 06:21
SCOTUS: NY DA Can Get Trump Tax Returns02/23 06:21 NEW YORK (AP) -- Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. fought for a year and a half to get access to former President Donald Trump's tax records. Now, thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, he will soon have them. But what will that mean for the Democrat's investigation into Trump's business affairs? Former prosecutors say the trove of records could give investigators new tools to determine whether Trump lied to lenders or tax officials, before or after he took office. "Prosecutors look for discrepancies in paperwork. For example, if Trump told the IRS he's broke and lenders that he's rich that's just the type of discrepancy they could build a case around," said Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor who worked on a wide range of white collar cases as Vance's chief of asset forfeiture. "These documents are a very important piece of the jigsaw puzzle," Levin said. Whether Trump's records will contain evidence of a crime is uncertain. The former president has argued for years that he broke no laws and has been unfairly targeted by Democrats for political reasons. Here is a look at where the tax records might be helpful, and where they might not help much, in the district attorney's investigation: ___ MORE THAN JUST RETURNS Trump went to extraordinary lengths to keep his federal income tax returns from becoming public, but those aren't the only valuable documents included in this haul. Trump's accounting firm, Mazars USA, is supposed to turn over not only the final versions of Trump's tax returns, but also draft versions of those returns and "any and all statements of financial condition, annual statements, periodic financial reports, and independent auditors' reports" held by the company. That could give state prosecutors an "open book" into Trump's finances, said Adam D. Citron, a former state prosecutor and partner at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron. "It's really the kitchen sink." Examining those other documents could be key to determining whether Trump or his companies gave tax authorities different information about his income than they presented to other officials, like banks and business partners. ___ HUSH MONEY When the district attorney's investigation first began, one of the initial subpoenas sent to the Trump Organization asked for information about payments Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, arranged to women who had claimed to have had extramarital sexual encounters with Trump. Cohen has said Trump's company later reimbursed him for one of those payments, to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels, disguising it in the form of a legal fees. It isn't clear, though, whether Trump's tax records will add much to that part of the probe. The New York Times, which obtained years of Trump's tax data, wrote that it contained "no new revelations" about the payment to Daniels and didn't include any itemized payments to Cohen. ___ TAX BREAKS The district attorney's office has been investigating some of the arrangements Trump made to reduce his tax bill. Data in the returns could be essential in analyzing whether any of those maneuvers crossed legal lines. One of the breaks under scrutiny is the one that Trump got for donating part of his Seven Springs estate, north of New York City, to a conservation trust. Some experts have questioned whether Trump overvalued the land to get a bigger break than he deserved. Investigators have already subpoenaed and received many documents related to the land deal. Trump benefited from a similar conservation donation in California. ___ STATEMENTS TO LENDERS Vance's office hasn't disclosed the full nature of its inquiry. But in court filings, prosecutors have pointed to news articles that questioned whether Trump had chronically exaggerated the value of his assets to banks and insurance companies. The Associated Press reported last month that Vance's office recently interviewed Cohen for hours, asking him, among other things, about Trump's relationship with Deutsche Bank, his biggest and longest standing creditor. One Washington Post story cited by prosecutors detailed how various Trump Organization financial disclosures inflated the number of home lots for sale at a California golf course, the acreage at one of his vineyards and the number of stories in Trump Tower while excluding information about debts at his Chicago and Las Vegas hotel projects. Tax records will only be one tool prosecutors will use to examine whether any of those statements amounted to fraud. "They're going to look at valuations and property values," Citron said of state prosecutors. "They'll look at the billings of attorneys to see what their expenses were for." Monday's ruling does not ensure the public will see Trump's financial records. For now, they are protected by grand jury secrecy rules. Even if charges are brought in the case, those documents likely would be heavily redacted if filed into the record. "Even then, I'm sure there will be tons of litigation about that," Citron said.
Interior Nominee Haaland Vows Balance 02/23 06:23
Interior Nominee Haaland Vows Balance 02/23 06:23 Oil and natural gas will continue to play a major role in America for years to come, even as the Biden administration seeks to conserve public lands and address climate change, President Joe Biden's nominee to head the Interior Department pledges. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Oil and natural gas will continue to play a major role in America for years to come, even as the Biden administration seeks to conserve public lands and address climate change, President Joe Biden's nominee to head the Interior Department pledges. Deb Haaland, a New Mexico congresswoman named to lead the Interior Department, said she is committed to "strike the right balance" as the agency manages energy development and seeks to restore and protect the nation's sprawling federal lands. Biden's agenda, including the possible creation of a Civilian Climate Corps, "demonstrates that America's public lands can and should be engines for clean energy production" and "has the potential to spur job creation," Haaland said in testimony prepared for her confirmation hearing Tuesday. Haaland's remarks are intended to rebut criticism from some Republicans who have complained that her opposition to drilling on federal lands will cost thousands of jobs and harm economies throughout the West. Haaland, 60, would be the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency. The Laguna Pueblo member and two-term congresswoman often draws on her experience as a single mother and the teachings of her ancestors as a reminder that action the U.S. takes on climate change, the environment and sacred sites will affect generations to come. Native Americans see Haaland's nomination as the best chance to move from consultation on tribal issues to consent and to put more land into the hands of tribal nations either outright or through stewardship agreements. The Interior Department has broad oversight of tribal affairs and energy development. "The historic nature of my confirmation is not lost on me, but I will say that it is not about me,'' Haaland said in her prepared testimony. "Rather, I hope this nomination would be an inspiration for Americans --- moving forward together as one nation and creating opportunities for all of us.'' As the daughter of a Pueblo woman, Haaland says she learned early to value hard work. Her mother is a Navy veteran and worked for a quarter-century at the Bureau of Indian Education, an Interior Department agency. Her father was a Marine who served in Vietnam. He received the Silver Star and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. "As a military family, we moved every few years when I was a kid, but no matter where we lived, my dad taught me and my siblings to appreciate nature, whether on a mountain trail or walking along the beach,'' Haaland said. The future congresswoman spent summers with her grandparents in Mesita, a Laguna Pueblo village. "It was in the cornfields with my grandfather where I learned the importance of water and protecting our resources and where I gained a deep respect for the Earth,'' she said. Haaland pledged to lead the Interior Department with honor and integrity and said she will be "a fierce advocate for our public lands." She promised to listen to and work with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and ensure that the Interior Department's decisions are based on science. She also vowed to "honor the sovereignty of tribal nations and recognize their part in America's story.'' She said she fully understands the role the Interior Department must play in Biden's "build back better" plan for infrastructure and clean energy and said she will seek to protect natural resources for future generations "so that we can continue to work, live, hunt, fish, and pray among them.'' Haaland's nomination has stirred strong opposition from some Republicans who say her "radical ideas" don't fit in with a rural way of life, particularly in the West. They cite her support for the Green New Deal and Biden's recent moratorium on oil and gas drilling on federal lands --- which doesn't apply to tribal lands --- and her opposition to fracking and the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said Haaland will have to convince him she's willing to break from what he called her "radical views" as a lawmaker, including opposition to the oil industry and to the lifting of federal protections for grizzly bears. "Her record speaks for itself. She's a die-hard, far-left ideologue," Daines said in an interview. Some Native American advocates called the description of Haaland as "radical" a loaded reference to her tribal status. "That kind of language is sort of a dog whistle for certain folks that see somebody who is an Indigenous woman potentially being in a position of power," said Ta'jin Perez with the group Western Native Voice. "Folks to some degree are afraid of change." Daines called the notion of racial overtones in his remarks outrageous. He is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which will consider Haaland's nomination at a hearing Tuesday. The panel's chair, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has not said how he will vote on Haaland's nomination, which Democrats generally support. Manchin, a moderate, said he plans to oppose Biden's choice for budget director, Neera Tanden, a crucial defection that could sink her nomination in the evenly divided Senate. National civil rights groups have joined forces with tribal leaders and environmental groups in supporting Haaland. A joint statement by the NAACP, UnidosUS and Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum praised her nomination as "historic" and called Haaland "a proven civil rights/racial justice advocate." A letter signed by nearly 500 national and regional organizations representing Native Americans, environmental justice groups and outdoor businesses called Haaland "a proven leader and the right person to lead the charge against the existential threats of our time: tackling the climate, biodiversity, extinction and COVID-19 crises and racial justice inequities on our federal public lands and waters."
World Shares Retreat on Wednesday 02/24 05:22
World Shares Retreat on Wednesday 02/24 05:22 World shares fell on Wednesday as investors weighed the possibility that inflation might prompt central banks to adjust their ultra-low interest rate policies. BANGKOK (AP) -- World shares fell on Wednesday as investors weighed the possibility that inflation might prompt central banks to adjust their ultra-low interest rate policies. Investors increasingly are focusing on a big tick up in bond yields and how it affects stock valuations, analysts say. The large amount of stimulus being pumped into economies has been a factor in pushing bond yields higher, giving some investors pause as it revives worries about inflation that have been nearly nonexistent for more than a decade. Germany's DAX rose 0.4% to 13,919.03 while the CAC 40 in France was nearly unchanged at 5,778.51. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.7% to 6,581.90. U.S. futures also were lower, with contracts for both the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials down 0.2%. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told Congress Tuesday the Fed didn't see a need to alter its policy of keeping interest rates ultra-low, noting that the economic recovery "remains uneven and far from complete." "Rising borrowing costs remain the prevalent issue on hand though Fed Powell's dovish remarks had helped to arrest the fall for US equities on Tuesday," Jingyi Pan of IG said in a commentary. Hong Kong led the decline in Asia, losing 3% to 29,718.24 after the government announced it was raising the stamp tax on stock transactions to 0.13% from 0.1%. The increased revenue would help boost tax coffers as the government spends more to pull the economy out of its pandemic doldrums. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 shed 1.6% to 29,671.70. In Seoul, the Kospi skidded 2.5% to 2,994.98. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.9% to 6,777.80. The Shanghai Composite index gave up 2% to 3,564.08. India's Sensex bucked the regional trend, gaining 0.5% to 49,997.82. Hong Kong's government also announced pandemic relief measures worth $15.4 billion to help the territory recovery from the blow to its economy, which contracted 6.1% last year. The measures include loans for the unemployed, consumption vouchers and tax relief. Hong Kong Finance Minister Paul Chan forecast the economy is set to grow 3.5% to 5.5% this year. The move to raise the tax on stock trading, the first in three decades, pulled shares in Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., which runs the bourse, down by as much as 12.4%. They closed 8.8% lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which has climbed recently, was steady at 1.36% on Wednesday. When bond yields rise, stock prices tend to be negatively impacted because investors turn an increasingly larger portion of their money toward the steadier stream of income that bonds provide. A late-afternoon burst of buying on Wall Street on Tuesday helped reverse most of a tech-focused sell-off, nudging the S&P 500 to its first gain after a five-day losing streak. The benchmark index eked out a 0.1% gain, to 3,881.37. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also rose 0.1%, to 31,537.35. The Nasdaq lost 0.5% to 13,465.20. The indexes were at all-time highs less than two weeks ago. Smaller company stocks fell more than the broader market. The Russell 2000 small-cap index slid 0.9%, to 2,231.21. The index, the biggest gainer so far this year, clawed back from a 3.6% slide. Since the pandemic began, investors have pushed prices of Big Tech stocks to stratospheric heights, betting that quarantined consumers would do most of their shopping online and spend more on devices and services for entertainment. The bet mostly paid off. But the pandemic may be reaching its end stages, with millions of vaccines being administered each week in the U.S. and across the globe now. It may cause consumers to return to their pre-pandemic habits. More broadly, investors remain focused on the future of global economies badly hit by COVID-19 and the potential for more stimulus to fix them. The U.S. House of Representatives is likely to vote on President Joe Biden's proposed stimulus package by the end of the week. It would include $1,400 checks to most Americans, additional payments for children, and billions of dollars in aid to state and local governments as well as additional aid to businesses impacted by the pandemic. In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 27 cents to $61.40 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost 3 cents on Tuesday to $61.67 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 12 cents to $64.36 per barrel. The U.S. dollar rose to 105.67 Japanese yen from 105.24 yen late Tuesday. The euro climbed to $1.2166 from $1.2150.
Judge Bans Start of Deportation Pause 02/24 06:10
Judge Bans Start of Deportation Pause 02/24 06:10 A federal judge late Tuesday indefinitely banned President Joe Biden's administration from enforcing a 100-day moratorium on most deportations. HOUSTON (AP) -- A federal judge late Tuesday indefinitely banned President Joe Biden's administration from enforcing a 100-day moratorium on most deportations. U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton issued a preliminary injunction sought by Texas, which argued the moratorium violated federal law and risked imposing additional costs on the state. Biden proposed the 100-day pause on deportations during his campaign as part of a larger review of immigration enforcement and an attempt to reverse the priorities of former President Donald Trump. Biden has proposed a sweeping immigration bill that would allow the legalization of an estimated 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally. He has also instituted other guidelines on whom immigration and border agents should target for enforcement. Tipton, a Trump appointee, initially ruled on Jan. 26 that the moratorium violated federal law on administrative procedure and that the U.S. failed to show why a deportation pause was justified. A temporary restraining order the judge issued was set to expire Tuesday. Tipton's ruling did not require deportations to resume at their previous pace. Even without a moratorium, immigration agencies have wide latitude in enforcing removals and processing cases. But in the days that followed his ruling, authorities deported 15 people to Jamaica and hundreds of others to Central America. The Biden administration has also continued expelling immigrants under a separate process begun by Trump officials, who invoked public-health law due to the coronavirus pandemic. The legal fight over the deportation ban is an early sign of Republican opposition to Biden's immigration priorities, just as Democrats and pro-immigrant legal groups fought Trump's proposals. Almost four years before Tipton's order, Trump signed a ban on travel from seven countries with predominantly Muslim populations that caused chaos at airports. Legal groups successfully sued to stop implementation of the ban. It was not immediately clear if the Biden administration will appeal Tipton's latest ruling. The Justice Department did not seek a stay of Tipton's earlier temporary restraining order.
Hong Kong to Spend $15.4B for Economy 02/24 06:14
Hong Kong to Spend $15.4B for Economy 02/24 06:14 HONG KONG (AP) -- Hong Kong will introduce 120 billion Hong Kong dollars ($15.4 billion) in fiscal measures to help businesses and residents impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, as it looks towards economic growth later this year following a recession in 2020. The measures --- which include tax relief, loans for the unemployed and consumption vouchers --- are aimed at stabilizing the economy, Hong Kong Finance Minister Paul Chan said in a budget speech Wednesday. He forecast the economy is set to grow 3.5% to 5.5% this year, compared to the economic contraction of 6.1% in 2020. The budget for 2021 "aims to alleviate the hardship and pressure caused by the economic downturn and the epidemic," Chan said. Unemployed residents can get loans capped at 80,000 Hong Kong dollars ($10,300) in a program that postpones payments for the first year and charges 1% interest. The measures come after Hong Kong last week reported a 7% jobless rate between November and January, the highest since April 2004. Vouchers worth 5,000 Hong Kong dollars ($645) will also be issued in installments to residents to boost consumption. Businesses and individuals will also receive tax relief. Chan said that Hong Kong's fiscal deficit is at a record high, after the government last year spent 300 billion Hong Kong dollars ($38.7 billion) on supporting measures, including a cash handout to residents, tax breaks and wage subsidies for businesses. To help replenish tax coffers drained by the extra spending and weak economy, the government will raise the stamp tax on stock trading to 0.13% from 0.1% as of Aug. 1, Chan said. That caused shares in the company operating the local bourse, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., to fall as much as 12.4% on Wednesday. The benchmark Hang Seng index fell 3%, to 29,718.24. Chan said Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese territory, would benefit from mainland China's "fundamentally sound" economy, despite uncertainties from the epidemic and in US-China relations. "In the medium term, Hong Kong will continue to benefit from the ongoing development of the mainland and the shift in global economic gravity from West to East," Chan said.
More Policy as Biden, Trudeau Meet 02/24 06:15
More Policy as Biden, Trudeau Meet 02/24 06:15 President Joe Biden's first bilateral meeting with Canada's Justin Trudeau since taking office was high on policy, low on pomp and featured a very large swipe at Biden's predecessor as the coronavirus forced the two leaders to convene virtually Tuesday rather than gathering with customary Oval Office fanfare. WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Joe Biden's first bilateral meeting with Canada's Justin Trudeau since taking office was high on policy, low on pomp and featured a very large swipe at Biden's predecessor as the coronavirus forced the two leaders to convene virtually Tuesday rather than gathering with customary Oval Office fanfare. The two leaders --- Biden in the Roosevelt Room at the White House and Trudeau in the prime minister's office in Ottawa --- delivered friendly opening remarks in front of the media, with flags from both countries on display at both ends of the long-distance conversation. "The United States has no closer friend, no closer friend, than Canada," Biden said. Trudeau, in turn, commended Biden for quickly rejoining the Paris climate accord, a worldwide pact to curb climate emissions that President Donald Trump walked away from early in his term. The prime minister, who had a frosty relationship with Trump at times, worked in a jab at Trump as he praised Biden. "U.S. leadership has been sorely missed over the past years," Trudeau said. "And I have to say as we were preparing the joint rollout of the communiqu on this, it's nice when the Americans are not pulling out all the references to climate change and instead adding them in." In remarks at the end of the talks, Biden for the first time publicly spoke out against the detention of two Canadian citizens imprisoned in China in apparent retaliation for Canada's arrest of a top Huawei executive. "Human beings are not bartering chips," Biden said of the two Canadians. "We are going to work together until their safe return." Trudeau, for his part, publicly thanked Biden for his support in seeking the men's release. Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were detained in China following the arrest of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou in Canada after the U.S. requested her extradition to face charges that the Chinese telecom company executive committed wire and bank fraud and violated U.S. sanctions on Iran. She denies the allegations. China lashed out at Canada last week for joining the U.S. and 56 other countries in endorsing a declaration denouncing state-sponsored arbitrary detention of foreign citizens for political purposes. Trudeau's broadside of Trump was a notable coda to a relationship marked by some notably undiplomatic moments. The Republican president, in a fit of pique in 2018, took to Twitter to label the prime minister "dishonest and weak" after Trudeau voiced objections to Trump raising tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, Mexico and the European Union. Trump blew up again at Trudeau in 2019, calling him "two-faced" after the Canadian leader was caught on video mocking the American president as he spoke to other world leaders on the sidelines of a NATO conference at Buckingham Palace. In pre-pandemic times, the Biden-Trudeau meeting would have been held with far more fanfare: Biden welcoming the Canadian prime minister with great ceremony upon his arrival, an Oval Office talk between the two leaders, a joint news conference and perhaps a luncheon. But with both leaders stressing caution to their citizens, Biden and Trudeau set aside the typical protocol in favor of talks by video conference. U.S. presidents traditionally invite the Canadian prime minister for their first meeting with a world leader. While cable stations in the United States stuck with breaking news about pro golfer Tiger Woods' serious car crash, Canada's CTV and CBC carried the leaders' opening remarks live. The two leaders agreed to a "road map" outlining how the neighboring countries will work together to fight COVID-19, curb climate emissions and pursue other shared priorities. Trudeau again raised with Biden the idea of allowing Canada, which is struggling to vaccinate its population, to buy vaccines produced in the U.S, according to a senior Canadian government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail the private talks. Canada currently is getting vaccines shipped from Pfizer and Moderna plants in Europe. Trudeau brought up the issue when the two leaders spoke by phone last month, Biden's first call to a foreign leader as president. But Biden's "first priority" remains "ensuring every American is vaccinated," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said ahead of the meeting. Biden's team offered the same message to Trudeau privately. The prime minister's office said in a statement that Biden and Trudeau discussed how the pandemic "will not end until everyone, everywhere has access to a vaccine" and "the importance of avoiding measures that may constrain the critical trade and supply-chain security between our countries." Neither leader in public remarks mentioned differences over Biden's "Buy American" executive order or his decision to halt construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a transcontinental project that was to bring oil from the tar sands of Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. The Keystone decision came up in the talks with Biden standing by his decision to stop the project as he promised to do during his campaign, according to the Canadian government official. Trudeau, who supported the project, expressed his disappointment with Biden's decision when the two spoke by phone last month. The Canadian side also raised concerns about the "Buy American" executive order that Biden signed during his first week in office. It is designed to encourage the federal government to spend more of the roughly $600 billion earmarked for procurement to boost U.S. factories and hiring. Biden previously said that as part of the push he was creating a "Made in America" office to evaluate contracts and make sure waivers are used only in "very limited circumstances." The issue is crucial to Canada since the U.S. accounts for about 75% of its exports. White House officials say no decisions have been made on waivers.
Biden to Order Review of Supply Chains 02/24 06:17
Biden to Order Review of Supply Chains 02/24 06:17 WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Joe Biden is preparing to sign an executive order to review U.S. supply chains for large-capacity batteries, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals and semiconductors that power cars, phones, military equipment and other goods. The United States has become increasingly reliant on imports of these goods --- a potential national security and economic risk that the Biden administration hopes to address with the planned 100-day review and the possibility of increased domestic production, according to administration officials who insisted on anonymity to discuss the order. However, Biden will also look to work with international partners to ensure a stable and reliable supply chain. The order being signed Wednesday will include sectoral reviews to be completed within one year for defense, public health and biological preparedness, information communications technology, energy, transportation and food production. Over the past year, the fragility of vital supply chains has been revealed repeatedly. The coronavirus outbreak led to an initial shortage of masks, gloves and other protective medical equipment. Automakers in the United States and Europe are now dealing with a shortage of computer chips. Administration officials have met with automakers and are talking with foreign counterparts on how to boost supplies in the short term. But there is no magic bullet to immediately fixing the lack of semiconductors for automakers, an administration official said. The chip shortage is indicative as to why Biden is trying to be proactive with the reviews, so that they can strengthen the supply chains to prevent additional challenges from emerging. Administration officials say that they plan to partner with industry and members of Congress as part of the effort and that no tool is off the table, including the use of the Defense Production Act. Nearly every major automaker that produces vehicles in the U.S. has cut production because of the shortage by canceling shifts, slowing assembly line speeds or temporarily closing factories. Most automakers have tried to limit the cuts to slower-selling vehicles. But the shortage has forced the Ford Motor Co. to at times cancel shifts at two plants that make the F-Series pickup truck, the top-selling vehicle in the nation. Besides Ford, Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler), General Motors, Toyota and Honda have had to slow production. Some are building vehicles without computer chips, which control engines, brakes, transmissions and other tasks, so they can be installed once more semiconductors are available. The chip shortage has cost the global auto industry the production of about 1 million vehicles, according to IHS Markit. The analytics firm expects the chip crisis to hit bottom toward the end of March, with supplies constrained into the third quarter. IHS Markit expects the lost production could be made up later in the year. But the shortage could compound already tight vehicle inventories in the U.S., driving up prices that rose when factories were closed last year due to the novel coronavirus. Moody's predicts that the chip shortage will cost Ford and General Motors about one-third of their pretax earnings this year. It also expects electric vehicle maker Tesla to be affected, although less than GM and Ford. The U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association says the country's share of global chip manufacturing capacity has dropped from 37% in 1990 to 12% today. The association wants Washington to fund domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research and pass an investment tax credit to help build and modernize chip factories in the U.S. The wrangling over semiconductors dovetails with China's economic rise as it became a manufacturing center for electronics. Chinese companies began to account for half of global semiconductor consumption in 2012, and demand has grown as China makes 90% of all smartphones, 67% of all smart televisions and 65% of all personal computers, noted a 2020 research paper by Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Capitol Defenders Cite Missed Intel 02/24 06:19
Capitol Defenders Cite Missed Intel 02/24 06:19 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Missed intelligence was to blame for the outmanned Capitol defenders' failure to anticipate the violent mob that invaded the iconic building and halted certification of the presidential election on Jan. 6, the officials who were in charge of security that day said in their first public testimony on the insurrection. The officials, including the former chief of the Capitol Police, pointed their fingers at various federal agencies --- and each other --- for their failure to defend the building as supporters of then-President Donald Trump overwhelmed security barriers, broke windows and doors and sent lawmakers fleeing from the House and Senate chambers. Five people died as a result of the riot, including a Capitol Police officer and a woman who was shot as she tried to enter the House chamber with lawmakers still inside. Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who resigned under pressure immediately after the attack, and the other officials said Tuesday they had expected the protests to be similar to two pro-Trump events in late 2020 that were far less violent. Sund said he hadn't seen an FBI field office report that warned of potential violence citing online posts about a "war." Sund described a scene as the mob arrived at the perimeter that was "like nothing" he had seen in his 30 years of policing and argued that the insurrection was not the result of poor planning by Capitol Police but of failures across the board. "No single civilian law enforcement agency -- and certainly not the USCP -- is trained and equipped to repel, without significant military or other law enforcement assistance, an insurrection of thousands of armed, violent, and coordinated individuals focused on breaching a building at all costs," he testified. The hearing was the first of many examinations of what happened that day, coming almost seven weeks after the attack and over a week after the Senate voted to acquit Trump of inciting the insurrection by telling his supporters to "fight like hell" to overturn his election defeat. Fencing and National Guard troops still surround the Capitol in a wide perimeter, cutting off streets and sidewalks that are normally full of cars, pedestrians and tourists. The joint hearing, part of an investigation by two Senate committees, was the first time the officials testified publicly about the events of Jan. 6. In addition to Sund, former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger, former House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving and Robert Contee, the acting chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department, testified. Irving and Stenger also resigned under pressure immediately after the deadly attack. They were Sund's supervisors and in charge of security for the House and Senate. "We must have the facts, and the answers are in this room," Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar said at the beginning of the hearing. The Rules panel is conducting the joint probe with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Even after the hearing, much still remains unknown about what happened before and during the assault. How much did law enforcement agencies know about plans for violence that day, many of which were public? And how could the Capitol Police have been so ill-prepared for a violent insurrection that was organized online? Sund told the lawmakers that he didn't know then that his officers had received a report from the FBI's field office in Norfolk, Virginia, that forecast, in detail, the chances that extremists could bring "war" to Washington the following day. The head of the FBI's office in Washington has said that once he received the Jan. 5 warning, the information was quickly shared with other law enforcement agencies through a joint terrorism task force. Sund said Tuesday that an officer on the task force had received that memo and forwarded it to a sergeant working on intelligence for the Capitol Police but that the information was not sent on to other supervisors. "How could you not get that vital intelligence?" asked Senate Homeland Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., who said the failure of the report to reach the chief was clearly a major problem. "That information would have been helpful," Sund acknowledged. Even without the intelligence, there were clear signs that violence was a possibility on Jan. 6. Far-right social media users openly hinted for weeks that chaos would erupt at the U.S. Capitol while Congress convened to certify the election results. Sund said he did see an intelligence report created within his own department warning that Congress could be targeted on Jan. 6. But he said that report assessed the probability of civil disobedience or arrests, based on the information they had, as "remote" to "improbable" for the groups expected to demonstrate. Contee, the acting city police chief, also suggested that no one had flagged the FBI information from Norfolk, Virginia, which he said came in the form of an email. He said he would have expected that kind of intelligence "would warrant a phone call or something. " Sund and Irving disagreed on when the National Guard was called and on requests for the guard beforehand. Sund said he spoke to both Stenger and Irving about requesting the National Guard in the days before the riot, and that Irving said he was concerned about the "optics" of having them present. Irving denied that, saying Sund's account was "categorically false." "We all agreed the intelligence did not support the troops and collectively decided to let it go," Stenger said. After smashing through the barriers at the perimeter, the invaders engaged in hand-to-hand combat with police officers, injuring dozens of them, and broke into the building. Once the violence had begun, Sund and Irving also disagreed on when the National Guard was requested --- Sund said he requested it at 1:09 p.m., but Irving denied receiving a call at that time. Contee said he was "stunned" over the delayed response. He said Sund was pleading with Army officials to deploy National Guard troops as the rioting rapidly escalated. Police officers "were out there literally fighting for their lives" but the officials appeared to be going through a "check the boxes" exercise, he said. Pentagon officials, who will be invited to testify before the committee at a second hearing next week, have said it took time to put the troops in position, and there was not enough contingency planning in advance. They said they offered the assistance beforehand but were turned down. Klobuchar said after the hearing that the next police chief should have greater ability to make decisions both leading up to and during a crisis, and the Rules panel could consider such legislation once the investigation is completed. The current structure "clearly needs some reform," she said. The hearing Tuesday was the first of several this week examining what went wrong Jan. 6. A House subcommittee will examine damage to the Capitol on Wednesday and will hear testimony from current security officials, including Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman, on Thursday. Next week, the Senate panels will invite officials from the Pentagon, FBI and Homeland Security Department. In prepared testimony released ahead of the hearing on damage to the Capitol, Architect of the Capitol J. Brett Blanton and the curator of the House of Representatives, Farar Elliott, describe damage to statues and paintings and quick thinking by staff as the rioting was underway --- including one aide who secured the House's 1819 silver inkstand, the oldest object in the chamber. Congress is also considering a bipartisan, independent commission, and multiple congressional committees have said they will look at different aspects of the siege. Federal law enforcement has arrested more than 230 people who were accused of being involved in the attack, and attorney general nominee Merrick Garland said in his confirmation hearing Monday that investigating the riot would be a priority.
