Giuliani confounds, contradicts as he defends Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s new attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is delivering confounding and at times contradictory statements as he tries to lessen the legal burdens on his client from an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and a $130,000 hush payment to a porn actress.
The former New York City mayor is embracing his client’s preferred approach to challenges as he mounts Trump’s defense through the media. But it’s proving to be a bewildering display.
In an interview Sunday with ABC’s “This Week,” Giuliani dismissed as rumor his own statements about Trump’s payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, said he can’t speak to whether the president lied to the American people when he denied knowledge of the silencing agreement and wouldn’t rule out the president asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the Russia investigation. Giuliani also couldn’t say whether Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, had made similar payments to other women on the president’s behalf.
Giuliani said despite Trump’s openness to sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia investigation, he would strongly advise Trump against it.
“I’m going to walk him into a prosecution for perjury like Martha Stewart?” Giuliani asked, referring to the lifestyle maven convicted in 2004 of lying to investigators and obstruction in an insider trading case.
CIA nominee offered to withdraw over program
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, offered to withdraw her nomination, two senior administration officials said Sunday, amid concerns that a debate over a harsh interrogation program would tarnish her reputation and that of the CIA.
White House aides on Friday sought out additional details about Haspel’s involvement in the CIA’s now-defunct program of detaining and brutally interrogating terror suspects after 9/11 as they prepared her for Wednesday’s confirmation hearing. This is when she offered to withdraw, the officials said.
They said Haspel, who is the acting director of the CIA, was reassured that her nomination was still on track and will not withdraw. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The news was first reported Sunday by The Washington Post.
Haspel, who would be the first woman to lead the CIA, is the first career operations officer to be nominated to lead the agency in decades. She served almost entirely undercover and much of her record is classified. Democrats say she should be disqualified because she was the chief of base at a covert detention site in Thailand where two terrorism suspects were subjected to waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning.
Britain hopes to address Trump concerns on Iran nuclear deal
WASHINGTON (AP) — Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. said Sunday his country believes it’s still possible to address President Donald Trump’s concerns about the Iran nuclear deal in time to prevent him from pulling out of the agreement.
Kim Darroch said Britain has ideas for dealing with those concerns. They include Iran’s ballistic missile program and its involvement in Mideast conflicts, issues that aren’t part of the international agreement. Trump also objects to the accord’s sunset clause, which allows Iran to resume part of its nuclear program after 2025.
“We think that we can find some language, produce some action that meets the president’s concerns,” Darroch told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” The deadline for Trump’s decision is this coming Saturday.
Britain’s foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has scheduled talks with U.S. officials in Washington this week.
Bombing at mosque in Afghanistan kills 14, wounds 33
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A bomb blast inside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan that was being used as a voter registration center killed at least 14 people and wounded 33, officials said on Sunday.
Talib Mangal, spokesman for the provincial governor in Khost, said that there was one female among those killed in the attack. “The blast happened while people were busy with prayers, meanwhile in other part of the mosque people had gathered to get their voter registration cards for the election,” he added.
Afghanistan plans to hold elections in October, the first since 2014.
Habib Shah Ansari, the provincial head of public health, also confirmed the toll from the attack in the city of Khost, the capital of the province of the same name.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied the group’s involvement. “We reject any kind of involvement in this incident,” he said.
Fatal attack on interracial couple heads to trial
PHOENIX (AP) — An interracial couple was walking near a Phoenix park when authorities say a shirtless neo-Nazi began angrily yelling a racial slur and harassing the black man in the couple over dating a white woman.
Authorities say the men exchanged tense words before Travis Ricci rushed back to a home where other white supremacists were partying, grabbed a shotgun and returned in a sedan driven by an associate. Ricci leaned out the car and fired two buckshot blasts, missing the black man — the intended target — and killing his girlfriend, investigators said.
Lawyers are now picking a jury to decide whether Ricci should be convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the 2009 attack, which prosecutors say was a hate crime.