Subpoenas pile up for Michael Flynn’s documents
WASHINGTON (AP) — Subpoenas for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn piled up Wednesday as the House intelligence committee pressured Flynn to cooperate with its investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The prospect of new congressional subpoenas came one day after the committee’s Senate counterpart served its own subpoenas to Flynn’s businesses. The FBI also faced a deadline Wednesday to turn over memos written by former FBI Director James Comey detailing his discussions with President Donald Trump. One memo reportedly shows Trump pressuring Comey to shut down the bureau’s investigation into Flynn’s Russia ties.
Also Wednesday, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page told The Associated Press that he will testify next month before the House intelligence committee.
During a breakfast Wednesday, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the House intelligence committee’s top Democrat, told reporters that Flynn declined to turn over records to the committee, and he said it will be “following up with subpoenas.” Schiff said the subpoenas will likely go out this week. He did not elaborate on what materials the committee was seeking.
The attempts to compel Flynn to produce documents were just another sign of the intense focus on Trump’s former national security adviser, who was fired in February after the White House said he misled administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, about his contacts with Russian officials.
Raids, arrests as on-edge UK seeks ‘network’ of attackers
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Security forces rounded up more suspects Wednesday in the deadly Manchester concert blast and soldiers fanned out across the country to national landmarks as an on-edge Britain tried to thwart the possibility of additional attacks.
Officials scoured the background of the British-born ethnic Libyan identified as the bomber, saying he was likely part of a wider terrorist network. Additional arrests were made both in Britain and in Libya in the bombing that killed 22 people and wounded scores more. Among those taken into custody in Libya were the suspected bomber’s father and his younger brother, the latter of whom confessed to knowing “all the details” of the attack plot, Libyan anti-terror authorities said.
“I think it’s very clear this is a network we are investigating,” said Chief Constable Ian Hopkins of the Manchester Police, as authorities raided British properties thought to be connected to Salman Abedi, the 22-year-old suspected bomber who grew up in Manchester and died in the attack.
British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Abedi “likely” did not act alone in the strike at the close of an Ariana Grande concert Monday night and that he had been known to security forces “up to a point.” Meanwhile, officials probed possible travel by the alleged bomber, looking for clues to new threats.
Government officials said nearly 1,000 soldiers were deployed to Buckingham Palace, Parliament and other high-profile sites across the country. Britain’s terror threat level was raised to “critical” — the highest level — on Tuesday over concern another attack could be imminent.
Father and brother of alleged bomber detained in Libya
CAIRO (AP) — The father and younger brother of the man who British police say bombed an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester have been detained in Libya, where anti-terror authorities said the brother confessed to knowing “all the details” of the attack plot.
Hashim Abedi, the 18-year-old brother of alleged British-born bomber Salman Abedi, 22, was detained in Tripoli Tuesday night, a spokesman for a Libyan anti-terror force said Wednesday.
The Special Deterrent force said in a statement on its Facebook page that Hashim Abedi had told investigators after his arrest that both he and his brother belonged to the Islamic State group.
“The brother was aware of all the details of the terrorist attack,” the statement said.
The father of both young men, Ramadan Abedi, 51, was detained on Wednesday shortly after telling The Associated Press in a phone interview from Tripoli that his son Salman, who British officials said died in the Manchester attack, was innocent and had been planning a religious pilgrimage to Mecca.
Throwing chaos aside, Trump aims for caution on big trip
BRUSSELS (AP) — In his first big tour on the world stage, President Donald Trump is choosing caution over his usual brand of chaos.
The early morning Twitter rants that so often rattle Washington have disappeared as Trump travels through the Middle East and Europe. The president has traded his free-wheeling speaking style for tightly scripted remarks. And with most of the traveling press corps being kept at a distance, the opportunities for him to be pressed on the controversies engulfing his administration back home are dramatically lessened.
Trump did briefly respond to one shouted question about his meeting with Pope Francis on Wednesday, offering this indisputable assessment of the pontiff: “He is something.”
The president appears likely to go his entire nine-day trip without holding a full news conference, a break from presidential foreign travel precedent. That’s allowed him to steer clear of the steady stream of new revelations about his dealings with ousted FBI Director James Comey and the federal investigations into his election campaign’s possible ties to Russia. And it’s left no real opportunities to push the president beyond his talking points on some of the trip’s most complex issues, including the prospect of restarting Middle East peace talks and strengthening regional alliances to combat terrorism.
The White House has been jubilant over the trip’s results so far, and content to let the images of Trump meeting with world leaders tell the story instead of the president’s own unpredictable words. The White House did not respond to questions Wednesday about whether he might squeeze in a news conference on the final legs of the trip, his meetings with NATO and European leaders in Brussels and the Group of 7 summit in Sicily.
Jury of 12 on Bill Cosby sex assault case includes 2 blacks
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The jury that will hear the sex assault case against Bill Cosby will include two blacks among its 12 members.
Prosecutors and the defense team on Wednesday also selected three of six alternates, and two of them are black.
Cosby’s lawyers had complained this week that prosecutors were trying to keep blacks off the jury with their seven strikes. The judge, though, found prosecutors had other valid reasons to strike two black women earlier this week. The jury makeup of 17 percent is higher than the 13 percent black population in Allegheny County.
Meanwhile, Judge Steven T. O’Neill removed a white male juror chosen Monday for undisclosed reasons. Lawyers then chose a white woman to replace him.
Cosby, the 79-year-old black actor-comedian once known as America’s Dad for his beloved portrayal of Dr. Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” is charged with drugging and molesting a Temple University women’s basketball team manager at his home near Philadelphia in 2004. He has called the encounter consensual.
Marijuana extract helps some kids with epilepsy, study says
(AP) A medicine made from marijuana, without the stuff that gives a high, cut seizures in kids with a severe form of epilepsy in a study that strengthens the case for more research into pot’s possible health benefits.
“This is the first solid, rigorously obtained scientific data” that a marijuana compound is safe and effective for this problem, said one study leader, Dr. Orrin Devinsky of NYU Langone Medical Center.
He said research into promising medical uses has been hampered by requiring scientists to get special licenses, plus legal constraints and false notions of how risky marijuana is.
“Opiates kill over 30,000 Americans a year, alcohol kills over 80,000 a year. And marijuana, as best we know, probably kills less than 50 people a year,” Devinsky said.
The study was published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.
Hannity says liberal fascists after sponsors; 1 is leaving
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean Hannity says a media watchdog is guilty of “liberal fascism” for targeting advertisers on his Fox News Channel show. One company announced Wednesday that it would no longer advertise there.
The Chicago-based Cars.com said it had been watching Hannity’s show closely and decided to suspend its backing.
Hannity went on the attack against the organization Media Matters for America, which a day earlier had published a list of companies that had run commercials on his show this month. Advertising boycotts are a potent weapon in the media world, although Media Matters says it is not actively fomenting a boycott.
With attention drawn to him, Hannity reached a big audience of 2.5 million people on Tuesday — about 50 percent more than he had last year on the same date.
