‘American Taliban’ John Walker Lindh to be released
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — John Walker Lindh, the young Californian who became known as the American Taliban after he was captured by U.S. forces in the invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, is set to go free after nearly two decades in prison.
But conditions imposed recently on Lindh’s release, slated for Thursday, make clear that authorities remain concerned about the threat he could pose once free.
Lindh, now 38, converted to Islam as a teenager after seeing the film “Malcolm X” and went overseas to study Arabic and the Quran. In November 2000, he went to Pakistan and from there made his way to Afghanistan. He joined the Taliban and was with them on Sept. 11, 2001, when al-Qaida terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The U.S. attacked Afghanistan after the country failed to turn over al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Lindh was captured in a battle with Northern Alliance fighters in late 2001. He was present when a group of Taliban prisoners launched an attack that killed Johnny Micheal “Mike” Spann, a CIA officer who had been interrogating Lindh and other Taliban prisoners.
Television footage of a bearded, wounded Lindh captured among Taliban fighters created an international sensation, and he was brought to the U.S. to face charges of conspiring to kill Spann and providing support to terrorists. Eventually, he struck a plea bargain in which he admitted illegally providing support to the Taliban but denied a role in Spann’s death.
Blackface photo investigation in Virginia hits a dead end
NORFOLK, Va. — The mystery of whether Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam was in the racist yearbook photo that nearly destroyed his career remains unsolved.
A monthslong investigation ordered up by Eastern Virginia Medical School failed to determine whether Northam is in the picture published in 1984 of a man in blackface next to someone in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe.
Investigators with a law firm hired by the school said Wednesday they couldn’t conclusively establish the identities of either person in the 35-year-old photo that was on Northam’s yearbook page alongside pictures of him.
They also said they couldn’t determine how the photo ended up on Northam’s page but found no evidence it was put there by mistake or as a prank.
When the picture came to light in February, the Democrat initially acknowledged he was in it and apologized without saying which costume he was in, then reversed course the next day, saying he was not in the photo. But he acknowledged he once wore blackface decades ago to look like Michael Jackson for a dance contest.
US, China appear to brace for long haul in trade dispute
WASHINGTON — With negotiations on hold and tariffs piling up, the United States and China appear to be bracing for a prolonged standoff over trade.
Beijing is airing Korean War movies (antagonist: America) to arouse patriotic feelings in the Chinese public and offering tax cuts to software and chip companies as U.S. export controls threaten Chinese tech companies.
In Washington, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is talking to Walmart and other companies about finding ways to ease the pain if President Donald Trump goes ahead with plans to extend import taxes to the $300 billion in Chinese products that haven’t already been hit with tariffs.
And the Trump administration is working on an aid package for American farmers hurt by China’s retaliatory tariffs on soybeans and other U.S. agricultural products — on top of last year’s $11 billion farm bailout.
Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer wrapped up an 11th round of talks with the Chinese earlier this month without reaching an agreement to resolve a dispute over Beijing’s aggressive efforts to challenge American technological dominance. The U.S. charges that China is stealing technology, unfairly subsidizing its own companies and forcing U.S. companies to hand over trade secrets if they want access to the Chinese market.
Search warrants tied to former Trump lawyer Cohen released
WASHINGTON — It was Michael Cohen’s numerous contacts with a Russia-linked company and a sudden flow of foreign money into a bank account he controlled that led federal investigators to look into whether the money might be part of a plan to lift U.S. sanctions on Russia, according to court filings unsealed Wednesday.
Five search warrant applications, from the early stages of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation in 2017, were made public in response to requests from The Associated Press and other media organizations.
Cohen, once President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and confidant, was not charged by Mueller or prosecutors in New York with anything related to Russian collusion or illegal influence peddling. But the documents shed further light on how Cohen capitalized financially on his closeness to Trump immediately after the 2016 election.
Cohen quickly immersed himself in the Washington swamp his boss had pledged to drain. The lawyer cut deals to act as a highly paid consultant to several foreign and domestic companies with business interests linked to federal government decisions.
Cohen is now serving a three-year prison sentence for tax evasion, lying to Congress about a Trump real estate project in Moscow, and campaign finance violations related to hush-money payments he orchestrated to two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump, the porn actress Stormy Daniels and erotic model Karen McDougal. Trump has denied the allegations.
Michael Avenatti charged with defrauding Stormy Daniels
NEW YORK — Michael Avenatti, the attorney who rocketed to fame through his representation of porn star Stormy Daniels in her battles with President Donald Trump, was charged Wednesday with ripping her off.
Federal prosecutors in New York City say Avenatti used a doctored document to divert about $300,000 that Daniels was supposed to get from a book deal, then used the money for personal and business expenses. Only half of that money was paid back, prosecutors said.
Daniels isn’t named in the court filing, but the details of the case, including the date her book was released, make it clear that she is the client involved.
Avenatti denied the allegations on Twitter.
“No monies relating to Ms. Daniels were ever misappropriated or mishandled. She received millions of dollars worth of legal services and we spent huge sums in expenses. She directly paid only $100.00 for all that she received. I look forward to a jury hearing the evidence,” he wrote.