WASHINGTON — Snitches, moles, spies, whistleblowers. Government informants are an age-old investigative tool that’s as much a part of the FBI’s 110 years of history as J. Edgar Hoover or its “10 Most Wanted” list.
In the case of President Donald Trump, the FBI called on a longtime informant — identified by several news outlets as an American professor living in Britain — to ascertain whether Trump’s campaign aides accepted help from the Russian government to sink Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions. That jury is still out, with a special counsel appointed to investigate.
In the meantime, Trump and closely aligned Republicans in Congress have flipped the tables on the politically damaging Russia probe by calling for a new investigation — this time into whether the FBI spied on his presidential campaign in its own bid to sway the 2016 election.
“If the FBI or DOJ was infiltrating a campaign for the benefit of another campaign, that is a really big deal,” Trump wrote last weekend in a tweet punctuated with his campaign slogan: “Drain the Swamp!”
PERRY HALL, Md. — A 16-year-old who was supposed to be on house arrest for auto theft was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in the death of a Maryland police officer.
After hearing about Dawnta Anthony Harris’ numerous recent run-ins with the law, a judge called him a “one-man crime wave” and ordered the teen held without bail.
More than 20 police officers were in the courtroom when Harris made his first court appearance by video. Harris has been charged as an adult in the Monday killing of Baltimore County police Officer Amy Caprio, 29, who was responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle.
Harris was waiting in the vehicle, a Jeep, while three other teens were inside a nearby home committing a burglary, according to authorities and court records.
The slain officer’s body camera footage clearly shows Harris accelerating the Jeep at Caprio after she tried to apprehend him on the cul-de-sac in the suburban Perry Hall community northeast of Baltimore, prosecutor William Bickel said during the hearing.
NEW YORK — A longtime business partner of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, has pleaded guilty to tax fraud in a deal that requires him to cooperate in any ongoing investigations.
New York City taxi magnate Evgeny Freidman entered the guilty plea on Tuesday at a court in Albany.
A person briefed on the plea deal says Freidman agreed to cooperate with federal or state authorities.
The person wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
State prosecutors charged Freidman last year with pocketing $5 million in state taxes on taxis he managed.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has long been an unlikely sweetheart for conservative and evangelical voters. Now, in the lead-up to the midterm elections, the thrice-married former Democrat who used to describe himself as “very pro-choice” is offering catnip to conservative voters with a new administration push to strip funding from Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics.
The initiative, announced last week, is aimed at resurrecting parts of a Reagan-era mandate banning federally funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions, or sharing space with abortion providers. And it has arrived just in time for Trump to highlight it Tuesday night when he speaks at the Susan B. Anthony List’s annual “Campaign for Life Gala.” The speech, said one administration official, is aimed at a core constituency of conservative activists who will be key to energizing the party entering the fall midterm elections.
It’s also the latest evidence that as he frets over the Russia investigation and prepares for a planned summit with North Korea, Trump has also been focused on fulfilling campaign promises and tending to issues that galvanize his base: holding a series of events to rail against the dangers of illegal immigration, pulling out of the Iran-nuclear deal and wading anew into the fight over abortion rights.
WASHINGTON — Congress moved Tuesday to dismantle a chunk of the rules framework for banks, installed to prevent a recurrence of the 2008 financial crisis that brought millions of lost jobs and foreclosed homes.
The House voted 258-159 to approve legislation rolling back the Dodd-Frank law, notching a legislative win for President Donald Trump, who made gutting the landmark law a campaign promise.
The Republican-led legislation, pushed by Wall Street banks as well as regional banks and smaller institutions, garnered some votes from House Democrats. Similarly, the bill splintered Democrats into two camps when the Senate voted 67-31 to approve it in March.
The bill raises the threshold at which banks are deemed so big and plugged into the financial grid that if one were to fail it would cause major havoc. Those banks are subject to stricter capital and planning requirements. Backers of the legislation are intent on loosening the restraints on them, asserting that would boost lending and the economy.
From Associated Press