Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spent seven hours on Tuesday speaking with members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and told them all about President Trump's shaky 2017 meeting in Hamburg with Russian President Vladimir Putin, committee aides told The Washington Post.
"We spent a lot of time in the conversation talking about how Putin seized every opportunity to push what he wanted," one aide said. "There was a discrepancy in preparation, and it created an unequal footing." Tillerson said Trump believed it would be a brief meeting, with the men exchanging nothing more than pleasantries, but Putin was ready to discuss major issues, and they were together for two hours. Tillerson also shared that he thinks the U.S. needs to do more to push back against Russia on the global stage, the Post reports.
Tillerson was invited to speak privately to a bipartisan group of lawmakers by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.). Tillerson, who was fired in March 2018, was careful not to insult Trump, a committee aide told the Post, but he made it clear that he and the president do not have the same "value system." When asked to describe Trump's values, the aide said Tillerson replied, "'I cannot.' Just as matter of fact, he stated that he couldn't or wouldn't unpack the president's values for us." Catherine Garcia
One of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) arguments against opening impeachment proceedings against President Trump is that House Democrats are actually winning their oversight battles with the White House. And in fact, a second federal judge green-lighted congressional subpoenas of Trump's financial records on Wednesday, and two of Trump's lenders — Wells Fargo and TD Bank — have reportedly already handed over some financial records.
On the other hand, Trump's lawyers plan to appeal the rulings on his Deutsche Bank, Capital One, and accounting records, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has refused to hand over Trump's tax returns, despite a law that says he "shall," a subpoena, and a memo from IRS lawyers agreeing he has little choice. New York may have just given House Democrats a workaround on Trump's tax returns, though.
On Wednesday, the New York state Assembly and Senate gave final approval to a law that would allow three congressional committees — House Ways and Means, Senate Banking, and Joint Committee on Taxation — to request the state tax returns of any elected or top appointed official. It covers both business and personal tax returns filed in the state. New York is Trump's home and the headquarters of many of his core businesses, and the information on his state returns should be very similar to what's on his federal returns.
If Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signs the legislation — a spokesman said he is reviewing it carefully — it will take effect immediately. That would probably provide House Democrats their fastest path to viewing Trump's tax returns — though the law, like all the other avenues, might have to overcome a court challenge first. Peter Weber
While President Trump fought to keep Deutsche Bank and Capital One from giving lawmakers records related to their dealings with his businesses, Wells Fargo and TD Bank turned over Trump-related documents to the House Financial Services Committee, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The committee has issued subpoenas to nine financial institutions, including Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, and JP Morgan Chase. Wells Fargo handed over several thousand documents while TD Bank gave a "handful," a person who saw the records told NBC News.
After she issued the subpoenas last month, House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said the "potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes is a very serious concern. The Financial Services Committee is exploring these matters, including as they may involve the president and his associates, as thoroughly as possible pursuant to its oversight authority, and will follow the facts wherever they may lead us."
On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled against Trump in his lawsuit to stop Deutsche Bank and Capital One from complying with subpoenas from the House Financial Services and Intelligence committees. Deutsche Bank was Trump's biggest lender, loaning the Trump Organization more than $2 billion over several years. Catherine Garcia
The Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to CBS News on Wednesday that a 10-year-old girl from El Salvador died while in the federal agency's custody last September.
Officials from the Office of Refugee Resettlement and Department of Homeland Security said this was the first death of a migrant child in federal custody since 2010. In the wake of her death, five other migrant children have died either while in U.S. custody or shortly after being released.
HHS spokesman Mark Weber said the girl was in a "medically fragile" state when she arrived in March at the Office of Refugee Resettlement in San Antonio. The girl had congenital heart defects, Weber said, and after undergoing surgery, she experienced complications that left her in a comatose state. In May, the girl was transported to a nursing facility in Phoenix, and on Sept. 26, she was moved to Omaha to be closer to family. She died on Sept. 29 from a fever and respiratory distress, Weber said.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) told CBS News he has "not seen any indication that the Trump administration disclosed the death of this young girl to the public or even to Congress. And if that's the case, they covered up her death for eight months, even though we were actively asking the question about whether any child had died or been seriously injured. We began asking that question last fall." Catherine Garcia
To boost security in the region, the Pentagon on Thursday will show the White House plans to send up to 10,000 more troops to the Middle East, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The officials said this is not in response to any new threats from Iran. President Trump has said he wants U.S. troops out of the Middle East, and it's not clear if the White House will approve sending any or all of the requested troops.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters on Wednesday the U.S. does not want to provoke Iran, and "our biggest focus at this point is to prevent Iranian miscalculation." Earlier this month, the U.S. hastened the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers to the region. U.S. officials have remained tight-lipped about any potential Iranian threats, merely saying there are maritime threats. Catherine Garcia
Feeling particularly feisty on Wednesday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) let the world know exactly how he feels about Attorney General William Barr and Rudy Giuliani.
"I think Bill Barr has all the duplicity of Rudy Giuliani without all the good looks and general likability of Rudy Giuliani," Schiff said during the Center for American Progress 2019 Ideas Conference. "The most dangerous thing, I think, that Bill Barr has done is basically say that a president under investigation can make the investigation go away if he thinks it's unfair which, by the way, means the other 14 investigations firmed up through other offices he can also make go away."
Barr, Schiff added, acts more like "a personal attorney" for Trump, and needs to resign. Barr refused to turn over documents related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and skipped a hearing before the House Intelligence Committee last week, and earlier Wednesday, the panel postponed a vote on holding him in contempt of Congress. "Department of Justice has accepted our offer of a first step towards compliance with our subpoena, and this week will begin turning over to the committee 12 categories of counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials as part of an initial rolling production," Schiff said in a statement. Catherine Garcia
A new study warns that if nothing is done to curb carbon emissions, sea levels could rise by more than six feet by the end of the century, flooding major cities — including Shanghai, Miami, and Mumbai – and displacing about 200 million people.
As the Earth gets warmer, ice sheets are melting faster than previously predicted, the study's scientists said. Co-author Robert Kopp, director of the Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Studies at Rutgers University, told NBC News there are many uncertainties when it comes to the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. For the study, 22 climate experts were asked to estimate the ice sheets' effect on sea level rise if temperatures rose by 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit and 9 degrees Fahrenheit, which is "consistent with unchecked emissions growth."
A 9 degree uptick was the worst-case scenario, and scientists predicted it would cause sea levels to rise by more than six feet by 2100, permanently flooding 700,000 square miles of land. If the temperature rose by only 3.6 degrees, melting ice sheets would add about two-and-a-half feet to sea level rise. Kopp said not all hope is lost, and "changing the course of emissions really can significantly affect this issue over the next 80 years." The study was published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Catherine Garcia