Arrests tied to Giuliani, Ukraine probe

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Florida businessmen tied to President Donald Trump’s lawyer and the Ukraine impeachment investigation were charged with federal campaign finance violations.

The charges Thursday relate to a $325,000 donation to a group supporting Trump’s reelection.

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, associates of Rudy Giuliani, were arrested Wednesday trying to board an international flight with one-way tickets at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, according to Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.

Parnas and Fruman were arrested on a four-count indictment that includes charges of conspiracy, making false statements to the Federal Election Commission and falsification of records. The men had key roles in Giuliani’s efforts to launch a Ukrainian corruption investigation against Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

The indictments mark the first criminal charges related to the Ukraine controversy. While they do not suggest wrongdoing by the Republican president, they raise additional questions about how those close to Trump and Giuliani sought to use their influence.

Trump has dismissed the impeachment inquiry as baseless and politically motivated. As he was leaving the White House for a political rally in Minneapolis, Trump said he didn’t know Parnas or Fruman and hadn’t spoken with Giuliani about them.

“We have nothing to do with it,” Trump said.

Giuliani said he couldn’t comment and that he didn’t represent the men in campaign finance matters.

Records show that Parnas and Fruman used wire transfers from a corporate entity to make the $325,000 donation to the America First Action committee in May 2018. But wire transfer records that became public through a lawsuit show that the corporate entity reported as making the transaction was not the source of the money.

The big donation to the Trump-allied PAC was part of a flurry of political spending tied to Parnas and Fruman, with at least $478,000 in donations flowing to GOP campaigns and PACs in little more than two months.

The money enabled the relatively unknown entrepreneurs to quickly gain access to the highest levels of the Republican Party, including meetings with Trump at the White House and Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

Prosecutors allege that Parnas urged a congressman to seek the ouster of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, at the behest of Ukrainian government officials. That happened about the same time that Parnas and Fruman committed to raising more than $20,000 for the politician.

The congressman wasn’t identified in court papers, but the donations match campaign finance reports for former Rep. Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican who lost his reelection bid in November. In May 2018, Parnas posted a photo of himself and his business partner David Correia with Sessions in his Capitol Hill office, with the caption “Hard at work!!”

Parnas and Fruman appeared in court Thursday and were ordered to remain jailed as a bail package was worked out. They are due in court in New York next week. Kevin Downing, the lawyer who represented former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on charges that he hid millions of dollars that he earned in Ukraine advising politicians there, was representing the men for their initial appearance and declined to comment.

Correia and Andrey Kukushkin, a Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen, were also charged in the case. A federal judge in San Francisco ordered Kukushkin held on Thursday pending a bail hearing to determine whether he is considered a flight risk.

Parnas and Fruman were arrested as they attempted to get on a flight to Frankfurt, Germany, according to a person familiar with the investigation. U.S. authorities are looking at whether that was a first stop en route to Ukraine, said the person, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the probe and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Attorney General William Barr had been briefed on the investigation soon after he was confirmed in February, was updated in recent weeks and was made aware Wednesday night that the men were being arrested, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

The indictment says Parnas and Fruman “sought to advance their personal financial interests and the political interests of at least one Ukrainian government official with whom they were working” and took steps to conceal it from third parties, including creditors. They created a limited liability corporation, Global Energy Producers, and “intentionally caused certain large contributions to be reported in the name of GEP instead of in their own names.”

Prosecutors charge that the two men falsely claimed the contributions came from GEP, which was described as a liquefied natural gas business. At that point, the company had no income or significant assets, the indictment said.

Prosecutors allege that Parnas and Fruman conspired to make illegal contributions to try to skirt the limit on federal campaign contributions. The men are also accused of making contributions to candidates for state and federal office, joint fundraising committees and independent expenditure committees in the names of other people.

The commitment to raise more than $20,000 for the congressman was made in May and June 2018.  The lawmaker had also received about $3 million in independent expenditures from a super political action committee that Parnas and Fruman had been funding.

As a result of the donations, Parnas and Fruman had meetings with the congressman and Parnas lobbied him to advocate for removing the ambassador to Ukraine, Berman said.

Trump referred to Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was indeed recalled to the U.S., as “bad news” in his July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Sessions said in a statement tweeted by a spokesman that he “could not have had any knowledge of the scheme described in the indictment.” Sessions wasn’t asked to take any action during the meetings with Parnas and Fruman and wrote a letter to the secretary of state about Yovanovitch after colleagues in Congress said she was “disparaging” the president, he said.

The indictment also charges that Kukushkin conspired with the three other defendants to make political contributions, funded by a foreign national, to politicians seeking state and federal office “to gain influence with candidates as to policies that would benefit a future business venture.”

An unnamed foreigner wired $500,000 from a bank account overseas through New York to the defendants for contributions to two candidates for state office in Nevada, the indictment alleges. Foreigners are not permitted to contribute to U.S. elections.

The indictment accuses the four men of also participating in a scheme to acquire retail marijuana licenses through donations to local and federal politicians in New York, Nevada and other states.

America First Action said the $325,000 contribution will remain in a separate account while the court cases play out. A spokeswoman, Kelly Sadler, said the committee will “scrupulously comply with the law.”

The AP reported last week that Parnas and Fruman helped arrange a January meeting in New York between Ukraine’s former top prosecutor, Yuri Lutsenko, and Giuliani, as well as other meetings with top government officials.

Giuliani’s efforts to launch a Ukrainian corruption investigation were echoed by Trump in the July 25 call with Zelenskiy. That conversation is now at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.

House Democrats subpoenaed Parnas and Fruman on Thursday for documents they have refused to produce to three House committees. The panels have also subpoenaed Giuliani.

A whistleblower complaint by an unnamed intelligence official makes reference to “associates” of Giuliani in Ukraine who were attempting to make contact with Zelenskiy’s team, though it’s not clear that refers to Parnas and Fruman.

Jim Miller

Jim Miller

James “Jim” Walter Miller, 85, of Parsons, died Thursday, October 10, 2019 at the Presbyterian Manor.  

Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the First Christian Church with the Rev. Laurie Lewis officiating. Burial will be in Memorial Lawn Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Carson-Wall Funeral Home. 

Iola UMW members recognized with awards

The Iola United Methodist Women met Sept. 26 at Calvary UMC and discussed recent awards given to UMW members. 

During the summer, several members, family and friends gathered to present the Dedicated Light Award to Dorothy Saxton who has been an active member for many years, and exemplifies what a United Methodist woman should be. The award is a gift to mission in the honoree’s name. She received acknowledgment at the UMW Great Plains Conference.

Donna Grigsby was awarded the Eunice Harrington Award at the UMW Great Plains Conference. One award each year is given in honor of a District Officer within the Conference who works toward racial equality and a commitment to local and world missions through volunteerism.

Also at the meeting, thank you notes were read from the Matt Miller family and members learned of a student from Ecuador receiving a scholarship and now teaching children about Jesus.

Donna Grigsby, Education, Nurture, and Outreach Coordinator, gave the Response Moment sharing how Dorcas, even though there are only seven verses in the Bible about her, exemplified the faithful living and servanthood of what United Methodist Women strive to be. The “Bright Lights” section told of a unit celebrating UMW and predecessors 150th birthday with providing children of poverty with cake mixes and frosting to make at home.

A time change will begin with the October meeting. The meetings will still be on the fourth Thursday but will begin at 10 a.m. instead of 6 p.m.

October 20 will be UMW Sunday. Luke 18:1-8 was tentatively set as the Scripture. “Hands of Glory” from Ottawa will bring the message through signing. Mission pins will be given at the worship service.

Donna Grigsby presented the program with information about history of UMW and the Annual Celebration of the Great Plains UMW where Joyce Sohl, former Women’s Division CEO, was the speaker.

The South Central Jurisdiction meeting will be March 26-29, 2020, in Little Rock, Ark. 

The next meeting of the Iola UMW will be at 10 a.m. October 24 at Calvary UMC. 

Program offers help with problem animals

An Urban Wildlife Damage Control Workshop is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, at the Chanute Auditorium Alliance room.

Most wild animals mind their own business and never create problems for people. But sometimes animals do become a nuisance, destructive or menacing, especially when we encroach into their habitat. 

This program will teach wildlife damage control with Charlie Lee, K-State Extension Wildlife Specialist. 

K-State Research and Extension – Southwind District is sponsoring this event, and it is free to attend. Please call the Erie office to RSVP at 620-244-3826.

 

Boyda drops out of 2020 Senate race

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A former Kansas Democratic congresswoman has dropped out of the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Pat Roberts.

Former U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda formed a campaign committee in June to run for the Democratic nomination next year. Former federal prosecutor and Kansas City area attorney Barry Grissom is also seeking the nomination.

Boyda represented a northeast Kansas district in the U.S. House in 2007 and 2008, ousting a Republican incumbent in 2006, only to narrowly lose the seat two years later. She said Thursday she was leaving the Senate race to focus on bringing Kansans together at a time of civic strife without what she described as the “constraints of a partisan campaign.”

Republicans haven’t lost a U.S. Senate race in Kansas since 1932.

How not to go viral: Get your flu shot

Our iPhones, social media and laptops give us a sense of connection, but there’s nothing like an infectious disease such as the flu to understand what “going viral” really means. Our connection also means we share a responsibility to one another to not put others in harm’s way only to avoid inconvenience or discomfort.

In 2019, the least you can do to be a good neighbor is get a flu vaccine.

The flu is often thought of as a “bad cold,” and for many young, strong, and healthy individuals that might be the case. But the influenza virus can be extremely harmful and even deadly to people who don’t have a strong immune system, such as the elderly, infants, cancer patients and others who are immune suppressed.

The influenza virus has claimed many lives over the past century. Major global flu pandemics in 1918, 1957, 1968 and 2009 did not spare the U.S., or Philadelphia. During the 1918 pandemic, a particularly powerful strain of influenza killed 20,000 people in Philadelphia — one death every five minutes for six weeks.

But it doesn’t require a global pandemic with a powerful strain for the flu to claim lives. According to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, in flu season 2017-2018, there were 50 influenza related deaths — more than double the number of deaths in Philadelphia from the “swine flu” during the 2009 pandemic — and more than 1,500 hospitalizations. The majority of those who died or hospitalized were over the age of 65.

People with weakened immune system, or those who don’t have the capacity to go get a vaccine, depend on heard immunity to protect them from influenza — and that means that everyone should chip in, especially considering that there is very little reason not to.

The flu vaccine is perfectly safe. The Centers for Disease Control recommends the flu vaccine for every person above the age of 6 months with very rare exceptions (people with known allergy for the vaccine, for example). And even though a low-grade fever and some ache is a possible side effect, the flu vaccine cannot cause the flu.

Many pharmacies provide flu shots at no cost or low cost. Employers should help their employees remain healthy and be good community stewards, by either arranging for a flu shot drive at the workplace or allowing employees to go out and get the flu shot without losing pay.

With a quick pinch, getting the flu shot contributes to herd immunity and protects the most vulnerable in our society from a potentially fatal illness. It is also a reminder that being part of a community means protecting one another.

You can find information about where you can get your flu vaccine on the Department of Public Health website.

— The Philadelphia 

Inquirer

Ambassador to Ukraine says recall based on ‘false claims’

WASHINGTON — Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, told lawmakers Friday that President Donald Trump was behind the decision to recall her early from Kyiv in May based on “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”

Her comments, which came at a closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill, could have profound implications for the ongoing House impeachment inquiry that centers around the president’s attempts to get Ukraine’s newly elected government to investigate his possible 2020 political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Yovanitch, who is believed to still be a State Department employee, spoke to lawmakers in defiance of the administration’s declaration that it would not be cooperating with the impeachment probe.

According to her opening statement, which was obtained by several news organizations, she lamented that the State Department has been “hollowed out” under Trump, and speculated about why the president’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and others involved in Trump’s shadow campaign with Ukrainian officials, had pushed for her removal.

“I do not know Mr. Giuliani’s motives for attacking me,” she planned to say, according to the opening statement. “But individuals who have been named in the press as contacts of Mr. Giuliani may well have believed that their personal financial ambitions were stymied by our anti-corruption policy in Ukraine.”

Giuliani and other Trump allies argued that Yovanovitch, a 33-year career diplomat, had become an impediment to their efforts to search for damaging material on Biden, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.

It was two months after her removal that Trump asked Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for “a favor” during a July 25 telephone conversation, sparking the whistleblower complaint filed weeks later that ultimately led to the impeachment inquiry.

California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, attacked Yovanovitch on Friday on Fox News for “badmouthing the Trump administration,” and called her a “partisan ambassador” who was “coordinating” with Democrats.

In her opening statement, Yovanovitch denied that she had ever tried to curtail Ukraine’s corruption investigations and called the notion that she was disloyal to Trump “fictitious.”

 

EARLIER THIS week, the White House directed Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, not to testify to the same committees. Sondland’s lawyer said Friday that the former Oregon hotelier, who was appointed ambassador after donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, will testify on Thursday.

Fiona Hill, who served as senior director for Europe and Russian affairs at the National Security Council until she stepped down in August, is scheduled to testify on Monday and is expected to offer further insight into Trump’s efforts to use foreign policy to boost his political campaign.

Yovanovitch’s name featured prominently in the indictment in New York of two businessmen who helped Giuliani set up meetings in Ukraine.

The indictment, made public Thursday after the two men were arrested while allegedly attempting to flee the country, charged Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman with campaign finance law violations for allegedly funneling foreign money to numerous candidates and committees, including a super PAC supporting the president and a congressman who later encouraged Trump to recall Yovanovitch.

Parnas was born in Ukraine, while Fruman was born in Belarus. The two were held on $1 million bond after their arrests at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, and remain in federal custody.

The three House committees involved in the impeachment inquiry have subpoenaed Parnas and Fruman, and again warned that noncompliance with document requests and deposition orders would be viewed as evidence of obstruction.

Although it’s unclear if matters beyond Trump’s dealings with Ukraine ultimately will be part of the Democrats’ impeachment probe, his opponents won a round in the courts Friday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld Congress’ right to demand Trump’s business and accounting records.

A three-judge panel on the court affirmed, 2-1, that Congress has broad investigative powers. The judges rejected the argument from Trump’s lawyers that the House Oversight and Reform Committee had no legitimate legislative reason to demand the files from the accounting firm Mazars USA.

Disputes between Congress and the president “are a recurring plot in our national story,” the judges wrote.

“And that is precisely what the Framers intended,” they wrote. “Having considered the weighty interests at stake in this case, we conclude that the subpoena issued by the Committee to Mazars is valid and enforceable.”

Trump’s lawyers can ask the entire court to rehear the case or take it to the Supreme Court.

NASA conducts spacewalk as world’s first spacewalker dies

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronauts replaced oversized batteries outside the International Space Station on Friday, as news broke of the death of the world’s first spacewalker.

NASA interrupted live TV coverage of its second spacewalk this week to announce Alexei Leonov’s death at age 85.

Leonov’s 12-minute spacewalk on March 18, 1965, preceded the first U.S. spacewalk by Ed White by less than three months. He also was the Soviet commander of the Apollo-Soyuz joint space mission in 1975, a prelude to the international cooperation seen aboard the current space station.

As U.S. astronauts Andrew Morgan and Christina Koch wrapped up a successful seven-hour spacewalk, the rest of the station crew paid tribute to Leonov.

“This is a bittersweet day for all of us on the International Space Station,” said Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, who met Leonov in years past. “It is somewhat fitting that Leonov left us on the day of a spacewalk.”

“Farewell, Alexei, and Ad Astra.”

Five days after their first spacewalk, Morgan and Koch swiftly continued swapping decade-old batteries in the station’s solar power network with new and improved lithium-ion versions. These new batteries are so powerful only one is needed for every two of the hydrogen-nickel units, which will be junked.

By the midway point of Friday’s excursion, Morgan and Koch had finished installing three new batteries 260 miles up. Given the hefty battery size — about half a refrigerator with a mass of 400 pounds — the astronauts had to take turns holding each unit as they moved along the station’s sprawling framework. With that successfully behind them, they got a jump on next week’s spacewalk.

It was the second of five spacewalks planned this month to install six new batteries that arrived via a Japanese supply ship two weeks ago. Morgan and Koch began the outdoor work Sunday. Morgan will be accompanied Wednesday by NASA’s Jessica Meir, the other woman on board.

Morgan has been aboard the space station since July. Koch is two-thirds of the way into what will be the longest single spaceflight by a woman, 300-plus days. On the fourth spacewalk of this series planned for later this month, Koch and Meir will perform the world’s first all-female spacewalk.

Friday marked the 35th anniversary of the first spacewalk by an American woman, Kathryn Sullivan, on Oct. 11, 1984. The Russians beat the Americans there, too. Three months earlier, cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the world’s first female spacewalker.

Since Leonov’s feat, there have been 227 spacewalkers including 14 women.

Authorities order evacuations in California wildfire

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A wildfire raged out of control along the northern edge of Los Angeles early Friday, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes as firefighters battled flames from the air and on the ground.

Police Chief Michel Moore said about 100,000 people in over 20,000 homes were ordered to evacuate.

Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said the fire had grown to more than 7 square miles (and at least 25 homes had been damaged. A middle-aged man who was near the fire went into cardiac arrest and died, the chief said, but he did not have details. A death was also confirmed at an earlier wildfire east of Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles blaze erupted around 9 p.m. Thursday along the northern tier of the San Fernando Valley as powerful Santa Ana winds swept through Southern California. Smoke streamed across the city and out to sea.

Terrazas said there were sustained winds of 20-25 mph with gusts over 50 mph and relative humidity levels had fallen as low as 3%.

“As you can imagine the embers from the wind have been traveling a significant distance which causes another fire to start,” Terrazas said.

The fire erupted in Sylmar, the northernmost portion of the valley, and spread westward at a rate of 800 acres an hour into Granada Hills and Porter Ranch, where subdivisions crowd against the foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains. The cause wasn’t immediately known.

Porter Ranch, an upper middle-class suburb that was the backdrop for the 1982 movie “E.T.” is no stranger to evacuations. Four years ago, a blowout at an underground natural gas well operated by Southern California Gas Co. in the neighboring Aliso Canyon storage facility drove 8,000 families from their homes.

In Northern California, the lights were back on Friday for more than half of the 2 million residents who lost electricity after the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. utility switched it off on Wednesday to prevent its equipment from sparking wildfires during dry, windy weather.

PG&E restored the power after workers inspected power lines to make sure it was safe to do so. Officials had worried the winds might topple transmission lines and start wildfires.

 

HELICOPTERS  made repeated water drops as crews in Los Angeles attacked flames in and around homes. Water- and retardant-dropping airplanes joined the battle after daybreak. About 1,000 firefighters were on the lines.

Edwin Bernard, 73, said he and his wife were forced to leave their four cats behind as they fled their Sylmar home.

Bernard, standing outside the evacuation center at the Sylmar Recreation Center on Friday, said they were only able to grab their three dogs. During a previous wildfire, they’d had time to find their passports and photo albums, but not Thursday night.

“The fireman said, ‘go, go, go!’” Bernard said. “It was a whole curtain of fire,” he said. “There was fire on all sides. We had to leave.”

Evacuations were also still in effect in the inland region east of Los Angeles where a fire erupted Thursday and raged through a mobile home park in the Calimesa area of Riverside County.

Seventy-four buildings were destroyed and 16 others were damaged.

Cal Fire spokeswoman Cathey Mattingly said Friday that one person was killed and others reported injuries, but she did not know the number or severity. The dead person was not immediately identified.

The missing included Don Turner’s 89-year-old mother.

Lois Arvickson called her son from her cellphone to say she was evacuating shortly after the blaze was reported in the small city of Calimesa, Turner said while with relatives at an evacuation center.

“She said she’s getting her purse and she’s getting out, and the line went dead,” he said.

Arvickson’s neighbors saw her in her garage as flames approached, according to Turner. A short time later the neighbors saw the garage on fire, but they didn’t know if she’d managed to escape, he said.

Melissa Brown said she moved to the mobile home complex earlier this year from Arizona, in part to help take care of her mother who has since died. Brown said she now also faces the loss of her home.

“The hardest part is my mom’s remains are in there,” she said Friday morning, choking back tears.

Fire danger is high throughout Southern California after the typically dry summer and early fall, and the notorious Santa Ana winds — linked to the spread of many wildfires — bring a dangerous mix of witheringly low humidity levels and powerful gusts.

The Calimesa fire erupted when the driver of a commercial trash truck dumped a smoldering load to prevent the vehicle from catching fire.

Dry grass quickly ignited and winds gusting to 50 mph blew the fire into the Villa Calimesa Mobile Home Park about 75 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. The park has 110 home sites and was built in 1958, according to its website. 

 

 

Fire officials were investigating what caused the trash in the truck to catch fire in Calimesa.

Dog missing since 2017 found 1,000 miles away

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A toy fox terrier that disappeared from its family’s south Florida home in 2007 was found this week over a thousand miles away in Pittsburgh and reunited with its owner on Friday.

The 14-year-old named Dutchess was found hungry, shivering and in serious need of a nail trim under a shed on Monday, according to Humane Animal Rescue.

The property owner took the dog to a Humane Animal Rescue location, where staffers were able to locate a microchip and trace the dog back to its owners in Boca Raton, Florida.

The dog’s owner, Katheryn Strang, drove all the way to Pittsburgh for an emotional reunion with Dutchess.

Boca Raton, Florida, is about 1,130 miles from Pittsburgh.

Strang said she couldn’t believe it when she got the call that her dog had been found after all these years.

She said her son opened the door after school one day and Dutchess got out and they never saw her again. They were living in Orlando at the time near a very busy street and she assumed the dog was either hit or scooped up by someone.

She checked shelters daily in the weeks after Dutchess went missing, and continued to pay the annual fee on the microchip, as well as update her contact information whenever she moved.

“They are like your babies. You don’t give up hope,” she said at a news conference after reuniting with Dutchess.

As she kissed and hugged her long-lost pet, she murmured to the dog: “Where have you been?”