Newspaper Page Text
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!
December 2, 2018
345 (jreen Street
4:i5-7:i5J>m
