Off-duty Capitol Police officer dies
in apparent suicide
A longtime officer with U.S. Capitol Police died Saturday while off duty in what’s being described as an apparent suicide.
The officer, Howard Liebengood, was 51.
Capitol Police did not reveal a cause of death for Liebengood in its announcement Sunday, but two sources told The Associated Press he died in an apparent suicide.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, and colleagues,” reads a statement released by Capitol Police. “We ask that his family, and other USCP officers’ and their families’ privacy be respected during this profoundly difficult time.”
Leibengood’s death comes three days after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building, leaving five dead, including U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick.
Capitol Police did not say whether Liebengood’s death was related to Wednesday’s horrific incident.
US diplomats in extraordinary protest against Trump for riot
WASHINGTON — In a highly unusual move, American diplomats have drafted two cables condemning President Donald Trump’s incitement of the deadly assault on the Capitol and calling for administration officials to possibly support invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.
Using what is known as the State Department’s “dissent channel,” career foreign and civil service officers said they fear last Wednesday’s siege may badly undermine U.S. credibility to promote and defend democratic values abroad.
“Failing to publicly hold the president to account would further damage our democracy and our ability to effectively accomplish our foreign policy goals abroad,” according to the second of the two cables, which were circulated among diplomats late last week and then sent to State Department leadership.
The cable called on Pompeo to support any lawful effort by Vice President Mike Pence and other Cabinet members to protect the country including through “the possible implementation of the procedures provided for in Article 4 of the 25th Amendment, if appropriate.” The amendment allows for the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare a president unfit for office, and the vice president then becomes acting president.
The cables were an extraordinary protest against a sitting U.S. president by American diplomats, who have long complained that the Trump administration has ignored and diminished their role and expertise. The dissent channel is normally used to oppose specific foreign policy decisions. The two most recent cables appear to be unprecedented in their scope and characterization of the president as a danger to the country.
China pushes back against US sanctions with new rules
China continued its pushback against U.S. sanctions, issuing new rules to protect its firms from “unjustified” foreign laws and allowing Chinese courts to punish global companies for complying with foreign restrictions.
The rules on “counteracting unjustified extra-territorial application” of foreign laws allow Chinese authorities to issue orders saying that companies or people in China don’t need to comply with foreign restrictions, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement Saturday.
The measures went into effect immediately, and although they don’t mention the U.S. directly, China has long complained about the extra-territorial application of U.S. law through sanctions and restrictions on trade. The rules also allow Chinese citizens or companies to sue for compensation in Chinese courts if their interests are damaged by the application of foreign laws, and could put global companies in legal jeopardy in China for complying with U.S. sanctions.
“The new order will be enforceable in China primarily through court actions brought by parties who believe they’ve been damaged by someone else’s compliance with a foreign sanction,” Nicholas Turner, a lawyer at Steptoe &Johnson LLP in Hong Kong who specializes in economic sanctions, said Saturday.
“Companies with significant business interests in China may need to tread carefully to avoid being subject to claims by counterparties in China under prohibition orders issued pursuant to this new framework,” he said. Still, it remains to be seen whether it “will be effective at discouraging companies from complying with U.S. sanctions in the region or elsewhere.”
By wire sources
