The filing to dismiss the case does not describe the terms of the arrangement, simply calling it a settlement agreement. “[A]ll parties have agreed that the … appeals should be dismissed,” it says.
While Dye characterized the development as the district attorney’s office having withdrawn its appeal of the district court’s decision, a spokesperson for Bragg described it as a “successful” effort to wrest a concession from the committee: the presence of Bragg’s general counsel during the Pomerantz interview. Bragg’s office called it an “agreement that protects the District Attorney’s privileges and interests.”
House deposition rules typically prohibit government counsel from participating, but committees routinely sidestep those rules to reach agreements with otherwise reluctant current and former government officials. In recent years, lawmakers have permitted lawyers for various federal agencies to appear in order to assert any privileges.
The House Judiciary Committee issued the subpoena to Pomerantz in the wake of Bragg filing criminal charges against Trump late last month. Bragg then sued Jordan and the Judiciary panel, seeking a court order preventing the House from enforcing the subpoena.
The Judiciary committee claimed it wants to study the potential effects that the threat of a future prosecution could have on a president while he is in office. Bragg’s office argued, however, that the House had no legitimate legislative purpose in issuing the subpoena and instead intends to examine the district attorney’s internal deliberations regarding the Trump indictment.
A federal judge rejected Bragg’s position. “The subpoena was issued with a ‘valid legislative purpose’ in connection with the ‘broad’ and ‘indispensable’ congressional power to ‘conduct investigations,’” U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil wrote.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Carroll said his client has told him that as many as 54 women at the CIA over the past decade have said they were been victims of sexual assault or misconduct by colleagues, and that their cases were improperly handled. POLITICO could not independently verify that assertion.
“This is the CIA’s Me Too moment,” said Carroll, who is a partner at the firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and is representing the victim pro bono.
The investigation started when one female CIA employee approached the committee in January and said that the agency had not punished a male colleague who had allegedly physically assaulted her and tried to forcibly kiss her repeatedly, according to Carroll and a copy of the complaint the woman made to local law enforcement.
She said that she quickly reported the attack to numerous offices at the CIA, but nothing was done.
She also said she was told by officials in the CIA’s security office that if she reported the incident to law enforcement, they would not protect her anymore from the alleged assailant. She said she was warned that moving forward with the allegation could end her career at the agency, according to Carroll and the complaint.
He said the CIA also threatened the women who were going to Congress with adverse consequences if they spoke out.
The CIA denied that the agency had tried to prevent the women from speaking to Congress. “This idea that there’s some threatening [of] officers who want to talk to HPSCI, that’s not true,” said the senior CIA official, referring to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “We haven’t threatened or blocked anybody.”
Carroll said that the committee’s staff have been busy talking to the women, comparing it to “client intake.”
Local county law enforcement is pursuing the first woman’s case as a misdemeanor, according to a document viewed by POLITICO, which is not sharing more details about the case in deference to her security concerns.
“We greatly appreciate the assistance of local law enforcement,” Carroll said. “If federal law enforcement had taken a similar interest, the charge would be felony sex assault.”
In a joint statement to POLITICO, Turner and Himes said: “Sexual assault is a heinous crime. Our committee is committed to addressing this matter and protecting those who are serving their country. We have been in contact with Director Burns, and he is fully committed to working with us on this issue.”
When asked for comment, CIA spokesperson Tammy Kupperman Thorp said in a statement that there “can be no tolerance for sexual assault or harassment at CIA.”
“The Director and senior CIA leaders have personally met with officers to understand their concerns and to take swift action,” she said. “We have established an office to work closely with survivors of sexual assault, and we are committed to treating every concern raised by members of the workforce with the utmost seriousness.”
She added that Burns and the agency’s senior leadership team is fully engaged on the issue and tracking it closely. “We are committed to supporting the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation and are keeping the Committee updated on our progress,” she said.
The senior CIA official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the agency’s inner workings, disputed that the CIA impedes alleged victims who want to approach law enforcement. The official said the agency is required by law to refer allegations of criminal sexual misconduct to law enforcement, and they do so. But the official added that in some cases, law enforcement declines to prosecute and so the CIA “takes appropriate action.”
At the same time, the person said that even before the letter from Congress, “we obviously recognize that we have to make some changes and improvements.” The official said that the “reporting process is difficult for some people to navigate” and that the agency is in the process of hiring an expert from the outside with decades of experience on combating sexual assault in the workforce to lead its new “Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.” The official said there are only a “handful of officers” who currently work in the office but that they expect to increase staffing.
Despite the congressional investigation, the official said the issue did not seem to affect many employees. “While one incident is too many, this may not be a pervasive problem throughout the agency. We take every single one of these allegations seriously, but it does not appear to be really widespread.” The official declined to comment on any specific cases or share the numbers of how many sexual misconduct allegations have been made.
Kevin Byrnes, a partner with the law firm FH+H, who is the Equal Employment Opportunity lawyer for the first woman who complained to the committee, said he represents several other female CIA employees who are alleging they were sexually assaulted or harassed in the workplace.
He said the agency’s security division and EEO office discourages people from filing complaints by claiming it’s not in the best interests of the women or would trigger disclosure of classified information. The CIA also requires victims to file a complaint within 45 days.
CIA employees go through the EEO process to vindicate their rights, according to Byrnes, as well as to secure changes in their working conditions and obtain payment for attorneys’ fees and compensation for pain and suffering.
But the office “has been a mechanism for deflection and interference with … complaints,” he said.
The senior CIA official said that the agency is working to fix how the EEO process works and is receiving recommendations for improvements. The person conceded that there have not yet been any tangible improvements made to that process.
A second woman who has spoken to committee staff in recent months alleged she was raped by a colleague at the CIA, according to Carroll. He said that the agency did not properly punish the alleged perpetrator. A third woman said that the same thing happened when she was sexually assaulted by a colleague at work, he added.
Allegations of sexual assault by CIA officers have surfaced publicly at times in the last 15 years. In 2009, two women said they were drugged and raped by Andrew Warren, the CIA’s former station chief in Algeria. A search of his residence found a dozen videotapes of him engaging in sexual acts with women, including some in a semi-conscious state. He pled guilty to the assault and served five years in prison.
Two years ago, former CIA officer Brian Jeffrey Raymond pled guilty to a number of federal charges, including sexual abuse. He was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting dozens of women he had met on dating apps over a 14-year period.
Raymond was arrested in Mexico City after local authorities responded to a naked woman screaming from his balcony. He was working for the U.S. embassy in Mexico City at the time.
BuzzFeed also reported in late 2021 that the agency had accumulated evidence that at least 10 employees and contractors had committed sex crimes that involved children, but despite many of the cases being referred to law enforcement, only one person was charged with a crime.
Erin Banco contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New Delhi: The Congress in the early hours of Thursday released its sixth and final list of five candidates for the impending Karnataka assembly elections.
In the final list, Mohammed Shalem was fielded from Raichur, BV Rajeev Gowda from Sidlaghatta, S Anand Kumar from C V Raman Nagar (SC), HP Sridhar Gowda from Arkalgud, and Inayath Ali from Mangalore City North.
The party had on Wednesday replaced Mohammed Yousuf Savanur as its candidate from the Shiggaon constituency in Karnataka, currently under Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai, and fielded Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan instead from there.
Bommai had defeated Congress candidates Sayed Azeempeer Khadri Shiggaon in the 2018 elections.
The party released its fifth list on Wednesday of three new candidates, fielding B C Muddugangadhar from the Mulbagal (SC) seat, D K Mohan from K R Pura, and A C Srinivasa from the Pulakeshinagar — SC seat.
With the sixth list, the Congress has announced 223 candidates, marking one seat in the 224-member assembly for Sarvodaya Karnataka Party, a regional outfit.
The last date for filing of nominations is April 20.
The assembly polls in the state held by BJP will take place on May 10 and the results will be announced on May 13.
Bengaluru: With the political temperature rising in Karnataka for the May 10 assembly polls, the BJP has sharpened its attack on the Congress with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai stating that the opposition party has shown special love for Lingayat community after the elections were announced and pursued “divide and rule policy”.
BJP president JP Nadda, who was in Karnataka, also attacked the Congress and accused its leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of being “patron” of PFI.
“Former CM Siddaramaiah from Congress party withdrew cases against PFI, released 1,700 PFI activists from jail…Siddaramaiah is their patron…,” Nadda said in Hubballi. The Centre banned the Popular Front of India (PFI) in September last year.
The Congress on Tuesday announced its candidate against Chief Minister Bommai from Shiggaon. The party has fielded Mohammed Yousuf Savanur from the seat. The party announced seven candidates on Tuesday and fielded former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar from Hubli-Dharwad-Central.
Jagadish Shettar’s resignation from BJP and his joining Congress on Monday has made Hubballi-Dharwad Central a key battle in the assembly polls. Shettar, a six-time MLA, represented the seat in the outgoing assembly and was keen to be given a ticket from the constituency.
He is the second senior leader from the Lingayat community to leave the ruling BJP and join Congress in less than a week. Former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi had joined the Congress on Friday.
Basavaraj Bommai said voters from the Lingayat community “are vigilant and “have taken right decision when required”.
“Lingayat voters in Karnataka are vigilant and they have always taken the right decision when required. Congress Party has shown special love for them (Lingayat) after the Assembly elections were announced but it’s the same party which tried to divide the Lingayats and Veerashaivas. The people have not forgotten the divide-and-rule policy of the Congress party,” Bommai told reporters.
“All those leaders who joined Congress during the election would not make any impact on the BJP’s prospects. This time, the BJP will win more seats than in the 2018 Assembly polls,” he added.
Nadda, who also interacted with intellectuals in Dharwad, slammed the Congress saying that the party that “divided the country for seven decades is now itself divided”
“In the 70 years of Congress (rule) there was division, division, division and only division. Divide society as much as you can– north-south, language, caste, creed, religion. The fact is, by dividing and dividing, they themselves are divided now. BJP is unity in diversity,” Nadda said.
“In Tamil Nadu, 60 years back, they (Congress) were uprooted, till then they haven’t returned in the State. In kerala, they used to rule, but now they have shrunk from there too. In Karnataka, the fight is going on,” Nadda said.”You (Congress) were (in government) in Andhra Pradesh, in Telangana, you ruled both the States and now you have been wiped out from both the States,” he added.
He also spoke of the country’s development and foreign policy under the Modi government and referred to the de-hyphenation of India and Pakistan.
“Whenever any country spoke of India, it used to say ‘India-Pakistan’ together. Today, none of the countries mentions Pakistan, when it speaks of India. It’s because India moved ahead and Pakistan remained where it was,” he said.
BJP’s chief is on a two-day visit to the southern state. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will embark on a visit to Karnataka from April 21. He will be in Davanagere on April 21 and in Devanahalli on April 22.
Shah is expected to attend Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) organisational meetings in the run-up to the polls. Sources said Shah will meet the top BJP leaders in the state and hold a core group meeting.
Shah will also chair a meeting of the Election Campaign Committee and give his inputs to the team. He is also likely to chair a meeting of the Election Management Committee.
Meanwhile, former Congress MP B V Nayak has quit the party, after being denied a ticket to Devadurga constituency. Ticket has been given to his brother’s wife.
Bengaluru: Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar and his dependents’ wealth grew from Rs 840.08 crore in the 2018 Assembly polls to Rs 1,413.78 crore in 2023 election showing an increase of 68.29 per cent over the last five years.
The Kanakapura MLA, who is contesting again from the same constituency, filed his affidavit on Monday.
According to the affidavit, he has a movable property worth Rs 251.69 crore which includes Rs 6.75 crore from the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF). In all, the family has Rs 273.42 crore worth movable property.
Further, the immovable assets of the former minister is Rs 972.65 crore whereas his family has total immovable assets of Rs 1,140.36 crore.
Back in 2018, Shivakumar and his family’s movable assets were Rs 101.30 crore and immovable property was Rs 738.78 crore.
The Congress leader has 19 cases registered against him including four Income Tax related, two by the Directorate of Enforcement and one Central Bureau of Investigation. All these cases are ongoing.
After the U.S. technically reached the $31.4 trillion debt limit in late January, the Treasury Department started taking “extraordinary measures” to keep the country from defaulting. That wonky process, which involves accounting maneuvers that reduce certain types of government debt, gave the nation a borrowing cushion of about $800 billion at the beginning of February.
But the government has many bills to pay, including sending out money to support Medicare providers, veterans benefits, Social Security checks and assistance to state and local governments.
Federal taxes come due in April, sending billions into government coffers and ensuring the country is safe from default through most of the spring. The day when the country can no longer meet its financial obligations, known as the X-date, is heavily dependent on whether those tax receipts meet, exceed or fall short of expectations.
Predicting how much cash the government will bring in during tax season is always difficult. Last year, for example, estimates from Congress’ nonpartisan budget office lowballed by about $500 billion what turned out to be record-setting revenue. This year, a difference of a few hundred billion dollars could buy — or cost — the country several months of leeway.
By late spring, the pendulum typically shifts to the spending column. If tax revenue comes in low, the nation could come extremely close to defaulting. If tax season is particularly fruitful, the extra money could keep the U.S. from defaulting until late summer or early fall — and likely keep markets rosy in the meantime.
On June 15, quarterly tax payments are due, an influx that could help buoy the nation’s cash through July. While that revenue bump is smaller than the regular tax season, quarterly payments usually bring in tens of billions of dollars as corporations, self-employed people and some other taxpayers hand over their estimated dues.
On June 30, the Treasury Department is allowed to extract about $140 billion in borrowing power from a key federal retirement fund. The accounting maneuver doesn’t affect any workers’ savings or prevent any retirees from getting their cash.
The federal government tends to run a deficit in late summer. And, by all estimates, the U.S. is most likely to reach the brink of default in August or September.
That’s an unfortunate timeframe for Congress’ 535 lawmakers, who want to escape Capitol Hill for their scheduled August recess but also historically seem incapable of reaching a bipartisan deal well in advance of a hard deadline.
More quarterly tax payments roll in on Sept. 15. If the U.S. hasn’t run out of borrowing power by then — and if Congress still hasn’t raised the debt limit or passed a short-term patch — that mid-September revenue bump will add billions of dollars to whatever borrowing authority the country has left.
With no substantial revenue coming in during October, available cash will wane quickly at this point, if it even lasts that long.
The timeline is uncertain, highly subject to the whims of federal cash flow. Despite those dangers, congressional leaders and the White House are virtually nowhere in their discussions to lift the borrowing cap.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New Delhi: Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday accused the Congress and the JD(S) of joining hands by promising to reverse the Karnataka government order to scrap the four percent quota for Muslims to deny benefits given to Vokkaligas, Lingayats as well as SCs and STs.
Describing the Janata Dal (Secular) as the B-team of the Congress, he said on Twitter that the BJP will stand strongly with these communities and will make sure it is with them for their progress.
He used the hashtag “anti-Hindu Congress” to target the opposition party.
While Karnataka Congress leaders want to reverse reservation, Rahul Gandhi “dropped” into Karnataka and said he wants to breach the Supreme Court limit on reservations, the BJP MP from the state tweeted.
“So the Congress politics of lies and promise and scoot politics continues. That is why voters chose BJP bcoz we deliver what we promise,” he said.
BJP I-T department head Amit Malviya alleged that Gandhi is being “disingenuous” with his claim on the issue of social justice when the erstwhile Siddaramaiah-led Congress government did nothing to address long-pending demands of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
“On the contrary, the BJP, in a series of steps since Oct 2022 did everything to empower them. The BJP government ensured reservation for SCs (17%, up from 15% earlier) and STs (7%, up from 3% earlier) was hiked in proportion to their population,” he said.
In March 2023, he added, the BJP ensured sub-categorisation of the SC quota, a long-pending demand “Siddaramaiah slept over when in office”.
“In addition, BJP removed the blatantly unconstitutional and communal religion based quota of 4% for Muslims and redistributed it between the agricultural communities represented by the Lingayats (their share went up from 5 to 7% under 2D)and Vokkaligas (from 4 to 6% under 2C),” Malviya said.
Gandhi has pitched for reservation in line with population as he demanded the release of the caste census which, he said, was done during the UPA government. He has also called for lifting the reservation cap.
New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded an up-to-date caste census.
In his letter, Kharge said in the absence of an updated caste census, a reliable data base so very essential for meaningful social justice and empowerment programmes, particularly for OBCs, is incomplete.
“I am writing to you to once again place on record the demand of the Indian National Congress for an up-to-date Caste Census. My colleagues and I have raised this demand earlier in both House of Parliament on a number of occasions as have leaders of many other Opposition parties,” the Congress chief said in his letter.
“You are aware that for the first time the UPA Government conducted a Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) during 2011-12 covering some 25 crore households. For a number of reasons, however, the caste data could not get published even though Congress and other MPs demanded its release after your government came to power in May 2014,” he said.
“In the absence of an updated Caste Census, I am afraid a reliable data base so very essential for meaningful social justice and empowerment programmes, particularly for OBCs, is incomplete. This Census is the responsibility of the Union Government,” Kharge said.
In the letter dated April 16, he also pointed out that the regular decennial census was to be carried out in 2021 but it has not yet been conducted.
“We demand that it be done immediately and that a comprehensive Caste Census be made its integral part,” Kharge said.
Sharing Kharge’s letter to the prime minister, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted “Jitni aabadi, utna haq! Congress President @kharge -ji has written to PM demanding that the decennial Census that should have been conducted in 2021 be done right-away, and a Caste Census be made its integral part. This will put social justice & empowerment on a firmer footing”.
Addressing a rally in Katnataka’s Kolar, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday had also dared Prime Minister Modi to release the 2011 caste-based census data in public domain and also demanded the 50 per cent cap on reservation be removed.
“UPA in 2011 did the caste-based census. It has the data of all the castes. Mr Prime Minister, you talk of OBCs. Make that data public. Let the nation know how many OBCs, Dalits and tribals are there in the country,” Gandhi had said at the Congress’ ‘Jai Bharat’ election rally in Kolar in the run-up to the May 10 Karnataka polls.
Bengaluru: Senior BJP leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Monday joined the Congress ahead of the May 10 Assembly elections in the state.
He joined the party in the presence of AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, General Secretaries K C Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala (Karnataka in-charge), KPCC president D K Shivakumar and Legislature Party leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, among others.
Shettar on Sunday had resigned as the Hubli-Dharwad (Central) MLA after the BJP denied him the ticket to contest the Assembly polls.
The 67-year old six-time MLA, Shettar was asked by the BJP top brass to make way for others, but he on his part had asserted he wanted to contest one last time.
After joining the Congress, Shettar alleged that he had been humiliated by the BJP by denying him a ticket and that party is today in the control of “very few people.”
“I was forcefully thrown out of the party that I built…I’m joining the Congress by accepting its ideology and principles,” he told reporters.
On his arrival in Bengaluru from Hubballi on Sunday night, Shettar had held discussions with Congress leaders Surjewala, Shivakumar, Siddaramaiah, former minister and campaign committee chief M B Patil and veteran party leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa (Shettar’s relative).
This decision of Shettar, a prominent Lingayat leader from north Karnataka, may adversely impact the BJP’s prospects in a number of segments in the region, according to political observers.
Shettar, a veteran BJP leader whose family has been associated with the party since Jana Sangh days, is an influential leader from its bastion of Kittur Karnataka region. While in the BJP he had served as a Minister, Speaker, Leader of the Opposition and the chief minister.
Panaji: Hitting out at the BJP, the Goa Congress on Sunday said that leaders of the saffron party, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, “failed to show the guts to speak truth over Mhadei issue” in front of people of the coastal state.
“Today none of the BJP leaders dared to speak over the Mhadei issue during Amit Shah’s public meeting (in South Goa). However, Shah tried to divert the issue by boasting of state schemes, which always remains unfulfilled,” said Chairman of Goa Congress Media Cell Amarnath Panjikar.
Referring to Shah’s remarks, during a public rally in Karnataka’s Belagavi in January, that the Centre “has resolved the long dispute between Goa and Karnataka over Mhadei and allowed the diversion of Mhadei to Karnataka to satisfy the thirst of farmers of many districts”, Panjikar said: “Pramod Sawant and other leaders of the BJP had got a good opportunity to clarify this issue, in the presence of Amit Shah.”
Recently, Goa BJP President Sadanand Shet Tanavade has said that BJP leaders have “guts to tell even the media in Karnataka that the Goa government will not compromise on the Mhadei river issue”. On this, Panjikar said, “Forget about speaking in front of the media in Karnataka, the state BJP leaders even failed to make a statement in Goa itself.”
“BJP has today proved that it is ‘masters of U-turn’ and doesn’t have guts to face the public on Mhadei issue. They only know how to suppress voice of people who seek justice against their dictatorship. Today all Goans have come to know the real fake face of BJP leaders,” he said.
