About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 2018)
8A Monday, November 26, 2018 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com WASHINGTON/POLITICS Ex-Trump campaign adviser loses bid to delay prison sentence Diversity, upbringing a focus in Senate race in Mississippi EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS I Associated Press Several dozen people stand in line outside the Hinds County Courthouse in Jackson, Miss., on Saturday, Nov. 24, 2018, waiting to cast absentee ballots in a U.S. Senate election runoff between Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Mike Espy. BY HOPE YEN Associated Press WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Sunday rejected a last- minute bid by former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos to delay his two-week prison term and ordered him to surrender Mon day as scheduled. Papadopoulos sought the delay until an appeals court had ruled in a sep arate case challenging the constitutionality of special counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment. But in an order Sun day, U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss said Papadopoulos had waited too long to con test his sentence after it was handed down in September. Moss noted that Papadopoulos had agreed not to appeal in most circumstances as part of his plea agreement and the judge said the challenge to Mueller’s appoint ment was unlikely to be success ful in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Four different federal judges have upheld Mueller’s appointment as proper. “The prospect that the D.C. Circuit will reach a contrary con clusion is remote,” Moss wrote. Tweeting in response Sun day, Papadopoulos said he looked forward to telling the full story behind his case. In recent months, he has spent many nights posting on Twitter, as has his wife, venting anger about the FBI and insisting he was framed by the government. He has also offered to testify before the Sen ate’s intelligence committee, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presi dential election, if he’s granted immunity or other conditions. “The truth will all be out. Not even a prison sentence can stop that momentum,” Papadopoulos wrote Sunday. “Looking forward to testifying publicly shortly after. The wool isn’t going to be pulled over America’s eyes forever.” Papadopoulos had filed an initial motion on Nov. 16, nearly two months after the dead line for appealing his convic tion or sentence. He followed up with a request to delay his sentence pending that motion on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. “Papadopoulos waited until the eleventh hour to seek relief; indeed, he did not file his sec ond motion — the stay request — until the last business day before he was scheduled to sur render to serve his sen tence,” Moss’ 13-page order states. “He has only his own delay to blame. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last year to lying to federal agents about his interactions with Rus sian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign. He also forfeited most of his rights to contest his conviction. His lawyer argued that the appellate case could constitute new evidence that could allow him to mount a challenge. That case was brought by a witness refusing to comply with a Muel ler grand jury subpoena. Papadopoulos’ sentence, issued by Moss on Sept. 7, was far less than the maximum six- month sentence sought by the government but more than the probation that Papadopoulos and his lawyers had asked for. Moss at the time noted that many simi lar cases resulted in probation but said he imposed a sentence of incarceration partly to send a message to the public that people can’t lie to the FBI. Papadopoulos, the first cam paign aide sentenced in Muel ler’s investigation, triggered the initial Russia investigation two years ago. Memos written by House Republicans and Demo crats and now declassified show that information about Papado poulos’ contacts with Russian intermediaries set in motion the FBI’s counterintelligence investi gation in July 2016 into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. That probe was later taken over by Mueller. BY EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press JACKSON, Miss. — A Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Missis sippi says he would bring experience of “diversity” and “inclusion” to the job, and he thinks the Republican he’s trying to unseat has a back ground lacking in those qualities. Democrat Mike Espy spoke Satur day about how he and his twin sister were among the 17 black students who integrated the all-white Yazoo City High School in 1969, graduating in 1971. An independent newspaper, the Jackson Free Press, reported Fri day that Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is white, attended a white private school founded in 1970, the year many Mississippi public high schools integrated. She graduated from Lawrence County Academy in 1977. Hyde-Smith campaign spokes woman Melissa Scallan responded to the report about Hyde-Smith’s high school attendance by saying: “In their latest attempt to help Mike Espy, the gotcha liberal media has taken leave of their senses. They have stooped to a new low, attack ing her entire family and trying to destroy her personally instead of focusing on the clear differences on the issues between Cindy Hyde- Smith and her far-left opponent.” Espy said he was called “the N-word” many days during integration. “I guess you could juxtapose my experience with her experience,” Espy told The Associated Press between his campaign appearances Saturday in Jackson. “If the story is correct, she con sciously made a decision to sepa rate, and my parents consciously made a decision to be inclusive,” Espy said. “So, that’s a Mississippi I want to be a part of — one of diver sity, one of inclusion, one of differ ent experiences. .. I decided to use that very difficult time to learn from and try to reach out to people of all races. So, if you compare me and that experience to Cindy Hyde and her experience, I’d rather have my experience.” The hard-fought Senate race is expected to drive a higher-than- usual turnout for a runoff in Missis sippi. President Donald Trump is set to travel to the state for two rallies with Hyde-Smith on Monday. More than 43,000 absentee ballots have been requested for the runoff, and that number could increase as circuit clerks continue compiling information, the Mississippi secre tary of state’s office said Saturday. About 69,000 absentee ballots were requested before the Nov. 6 election. There’s typically a large decrease in ballots cast between the first election and a runoff. Saturday was the deadline for in-person absentee voting. Several dozen waited in a line that stretched out of the Hinds County Courthouse in downtown Jackson, including retired home economics teacher Illi nois Cox Littleton, 92, who said she voted for Espy because she consid ers him “a highly intelligent man.” Hyde-Smith was appointed as a temporary successor to longtime Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, who retired in April. The winner of Tues day’s runoff gets the final two years of a term he started. She is the first woman to repre sent Mississippi in Congress, and Espy is seeking to become the first African-American to represent the state in the U.S. Senate since Recon struction. Mississippi last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 1982. Mississippi has a history of racially motivated lynchings and violence against people who sought voting rights for black citizens, and Hyde-Smith has been sharply criti cized after two videos surfaced this month. One showed her praising a supporter at a Nov. 2 campaign event by saying: “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.” Another showed her Nov. 3 talking about “liberal folks” and making it “just a little more dif ficult” for them to vote. Her campaign said the remark about voting was a joke. Hyde-Smith said the “public hang ing” comment was “an exaggerated expression of regard” for a fellow cattle rancher. During a televised debate nine days after that video was published, said she apologized to “anyone that was offended by my comments,” but also said the remark was used as a “weapon” against her. Yearbook photos from Lawrence Academy, which is now closed, show Hyde was a cheerleader for a team that had a rebel mascot who carried a Confederate battle flag. The school photos surfaced days after other photos circulated on social media of Hyde-Smith wearing a gray Confederate military-style hat in 2014 when she was state agri culture commissioner and visited Beauvoir, the beachside home in Biloxi, Mississippi, that was the last home for Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Hyde-Smith posted the photos of herself at Beauvoir in Facebook at the time with the cap tion: “Mississippi history at its best!” Papadopoulos Democrats shun idea of Pelosi floor fight in January speaker’s race J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE I Associated Press House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, smiles as she meets with reporters on Election Day at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, Nov. 6. BY LISA MASCAR0 Associated Press WASHINGTON — Call it the chaos theory for picking the next House speaker. Those Democrats try ing to stop California Rep. Nancy Pelosi from reclaim ing the job say they don’t need a rival candidate just yet. Instead, they plan to show that Pelosi lacks the votes to win the race. And then, they say, new challeng ers will emerge. It’s strategy that has other Democrats cringing at the prospect of their new House majority in disarray. They say voters swept them to office in this month’s elec tions to govern, not become bogged down by the kind of Republican infighting that sent Ohio Rep. John Boehner to an early exit as speaker and weakened his successor, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan. The last thing they want is a floor fight over the lead ership post when Congress opens work in January. “If the first Democratic value they see is chaos, I don’t think that’s very good,” said Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., who recently wrote an op-ed with colleagues supporting Pelosi. “I don’t think it’s a good look at all.” The chaos theory will be put to a test this coming week when House Demo crats meet in private for a vote nominating Pelosi to become speaker in January. She held that post from 2007 to 2011, the first woman to serve as speaker. After one potential rival stepped aside, Pelosi is expected to easily win the majority from her ranks. But opponents have hopes of denying her the broader support she needs when the new Congress holds a vote in January. One of those organizing against her, Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., said recently that the lack of a sure-fire challenger is beside the point. The goal is to force the question. “The whole concept of you can’t beat somebody with nobody is a Nancy Pelosi talking point,” she said. As Rice and others in the group led by Reps. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Tim Ryan of Ohio see it, it’s all in the math. At the moment, there are at least 15 Pelosi oppo nents, making for a razor- thin vote. House Democrats won a 233-seat majority in the 435-member House in the November midterm election, with a few races still uncalled. Pelosi needs 218 to win the job, if all Republicans oppose her, which is likely. The margin could expand slightly with absences or if lawmakers simply vote “present.” “The first step is showing that she cannot get to 218,” Rice told reporters, “and then I believe the challeng ers will emerge that can allow new members to say, Ok here’s another possibil ity, now I get it.” Moulton, a Marine vet eran, said earlier he hopes it will be “a chaotic debate” for new leadership because “that would be healthy for the party.” But after the election delivered Democrats the House majority, it’s an approach that may require a leap of faith that other lawmakers are unwilling to take, especially as Pelosi amasses an outpouring of support from advocacy groups, labor unions and even former President Barack Obama in a display of raw power. Trying to head off that debate, Pelosi sent a letter to colleagues thanking “so many of you for the strong support you have given me” and asked that “we all sup port” the party’s nominee for speaker when the full House votes. “Our unity is our power,” she wrote. At one point Pelosi’s oppo nents counted 17 Democrats on a letter against Pelosi and were hoping for more. But one by one, some of them started standing down. A potential rival, Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, decided against a challenge, agreeing instead to lead a new subcommittee on voting integrity. Pelosi revived that panel and recommended Fudge for the post, elevat ing an issue important to the Congressional Black Caucus, especially after close races this month in Florida and Georgia. Another opponent, Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., dropped his opposition after he said Pelosi agreed to have him take the lead on his proposal to expand Medi care as an option for those age 50 to 65. Join us for fun holiday festivities! 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