Comey: Trump’s attacks on FBI make America less safe
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s political attacks on the FBI make America less safe because they undermine public confidence that the bureau is an “honest, competent and independent” institution, fired director James Comey told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
In a telephone interview, Comey also said it was logical that special counsel Robert Mueller would seek to interview Trump since the president is a subject of an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Comey ruled out seeking elected office and said that, as a leader, he took responsibility for some of the turmoil that has surrounded the FBI in recent months.
The ex-FBI chief said it was clear the president’s blistering attacks on the bureau, including Trump’s calls for scrutiny of his political opponents and his suggestion that Comey should be jailed, affect public safety in “hundreds and thousands of ways” — especially if crime victims no longer believe that an agent knocking on their door will help them or that an agent testifying before a jury can be believed.
“To the extent there’s been a marginal decrease in their credibility at that doorway, in that courtroom and in thousands of other ways, their effectiveness is hit. So it’s hard,” Comey said.
“You’re not going to be able to see it, but logic tells me that it’s there, which is why it’s so important that we knock it off as a political culture.”
California sues over plan to scrap car emission standards
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California and 16 other states sued the Trump administration Tuesday over its plan to scrap Obama-era auto-emissions standards that would require vehicles to get significantly higher gas mileage by 2025.
At issue is a move by Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt to roll back 2012 rules aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Under those rules, vehicles would have to get 36 miles of real-world driving per gallon (58 kilometers per gallon), about 10 miles (16 kilometers) over the existing standard.
“Pollutants coming out of vehicles, out of the tailpipe, does permanent lung damage to children living near well-traveled roads and freeways. This is a fact. The only way we’re going to overcome that is by reducing emissions,” Gov. Jerry Brown said in announcing the lawsuit along with other top California Democrats.
The rules were set six years ago when California and the Obama administration agreed to a single nationwide fuel economy standard.
Pruitt, who has sought to block or delay an array of environmental regulations, has argued that assumptions about gas prices and vehicle technology used by the Obama administration to set the standards were too optimistic. And he said the standards would hurt automakers and consumers who can’t afford or don’t want to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles.
Next steps for caravan will unfold out of public view
TIJUANA, Mexico — The caravan of Central Americans seeking asylum in the United States sought the world’s attention as scores of migrants traveled through Mexico on a journey to escape their violent homelands.
Now that the group has arrived at the border, the next steps in their journey will unfold mostly out of public view.
The caravan first drew attention in the U.S. when President Donald Trump promised that his administration would seek to turn the families away. The rest of the asylum-seeking process will happen slowly and secretively in immigration courts.
The first eight caravan members turned themselves in to U.S. border inspectors Monday at San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing.
Another six asylum seekers trickled in Tuesday, organizers said, leaving about 150 still waiting outside, many with backpacks and blankets. The San Diego crossing, the nation’s busiest, processed about 50 asylum seekers a day from October through February, suggesting the wait will be short.
Texas suing to end ‘Dreamers’ program once and for all
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas and six other states are suing to end once and for all a program that would protect some young immigrants from deportation.
The lawsuit announced Tuesday comes a week after a federal judge in Washington ordered the Trump administration to resume the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Immigrants under the Obama-era program are commonly referred to as “Dreamers.” Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had threatened legal action for the past year if the program didn’t come to a halt.
Joining Texas in the lawsuit are Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia.
A federal judge in Washington called the Department of Homeland Security’s rationale against the program “arbitrary and capricious.” He gave the Trump administration 90 days to make a new case.
By wire sources
