38 people cited for violations in Clinton email probe
WASHINGTON — The State Department has completed its internal investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of private email and found violations by 38 people, some of whom may face disciplinary action.
The investigation, launched more than three years ago, determined that those 38 people were “culpable” in 91 cases of sending classified information that ended up in Clinton’s personal email, according to a letter sent to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley this week and released on Friday. The 38 are current and former State Department officials but were not identified.
Although the report identified violations, it said investigators had found “no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.” However, it also made clear that Clinton’s use of the private email had increased the vulnerability of classified information.
The Associated Press sent an email seeking comment to a Clinton representative.
The investigation covered 33,000 emails that Clinton turned over for review after her use of the private email account became public. The department said it found a total of 588 violations involving information then or now deemed to be classified but could not assign fault in 497 cases.
Failed raid against El Chapo’s son leaves 8 dead in Mexico
CULIACAN, Mexico — Mexican security forces aborted an attempt to capture a son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman after finding themselves outgunned in a ferocious shootout with cartel henchmen that left at least eight people dead and more than 20 wounded, authorities said Friday.
The gunbattle Thursday paralyzed the capital of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, Culiacan, and left the streets littered with burning vehicles. Residents took cover indoors as automatic gunfire raged outside.
It was the third bloody and terrifying shootout in less than a week between security forces and cartel henchmen, raising questions about whether President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s policy of avoiding the use of force and focusing on social ills is working.
López Obrador defended the decision to back down, saying his predecessors’ strategy “turned this country into a cemetery, and we don’t want that anymore.”
But Mike Vigil, a former chief of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration who worked undercover in Mexico, called the violence “a massive black eye to the Mexican government” and a “sign that the cartels are more powerful” than it is.
Cummings remembered as a mentor to many in Baltimore
BALTIMORE — The top prosecutor in Baltimore knew exactly where to go for guidance after she made the decision to file charges in an explosive case involving the death of a black man in police custody. She called Rep. Elijah Cummings, her trusted adviser and friend.
After that call in May 2015, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced charges ranging from assault to murder against six officers in the case of Freddie Gray, whose death from a neck injury suffered during a jolting ride in the back of a police van had set off some of the worst riots in decades in Baltimore.
Cummings “said he was there with me. He said he believed in me,” Mosby said Friday, recalling the telephone conversation.
Later, when Mosby came under public attack over her handling of the case, “he would say ‘No, I stand with Marilyn Mosby. I stand with her decision.’”
Mosby is not the only Baltimore resident who relied on Cummings for advice. The congressman and civil rights advocate, who died Thursday at 68, mentored countless young people, faith leaders, activists, politicians and others over the years.
Johnson urges support for Brexit deal before knife-edge vote
LONDON — Boris Johnson worked behind the scenes Friday to win enough support to push his new Brexit deal through the fractious British Parliament and pave the way for Britain — finally — to leave the European Union in two weeks.
His message to allies and opponents alike: Approve the agreement so Britain can finally put the tortuous, three-year Brexit saga behind it.
Johnson returned overnight from the EU summit in Brussels where he sealed the divorce deal and began a busy day of meetings and phone calls as he attempted to persuade lawmakers to ratify the pact at a rare Saturday sitting of Parliament. He met Friday with his Cabinet ahead of what’s expected to be a knife-edge House of Commons vote on what was being billed by an excited media as Super Saturday.
“I want colleagues on all sides of the House to think about a world tomorrow night in which we’ve got this thing done and we’ve got it over the line,” he told British broadcaster ITV. “Because I think the nation will heave a great sigh of relief because that will be our moment to get on with the priorities of our country.”
Johnson’s Conservative Party holds only 288 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, so he will have to rely on support from other parties and independent lawmakers to get over the line.
The vote appeared to be tight, and it could yet be disrupted. While the vote will mark a defining moment, the Brexit saga may have more twists in store.
1 dead after plane landing on Alaska island went off runway
JUNEAU, Alaska — One person died after a commuter airplane went off the end of a runway while landing at an airport in the remote Aleutian Islands fishing community of Unalaska, authorities said Friday.
Alaska State Troopers identified the victim as David Allan Oltman, 38, of Washington state.
The plane, operated by Peninsula Airways, or PenAir, left Anchorage around 3:15 p.m. Thursday with 42 people on board, including 39 passengers and three crew members, a statement from the company said. One passenger was a child under age 2, said Clint Johnson, chief of the Alaska region for the National Transportation Safety Board.
The flight landed around 5:40 p.m. and went off the end of the runway. PenAir is owned by Ravn Air Group and said it is cooperating with federal investigators.
“On behalf of PenAir, Ravn Air Group and all our employees throughout the company, we would like to extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to the family and loved ones of our passenger who passed away,” Dave Pflieger, president of RavnAir Group, said in a statement.
Johnson said a team of nine NTSB investigators was expected in Anchorage late Friday. Some members would remain in Anchorage while others were expected to travel to Unalaska early Saturday, he said. Additionally, an agency investigator from Alaska was expected to be on scene as the flight data and cockpit voice recorders were removed from the plane, he said.