A federal judge on Thursday sentenced President Donald Trump’s longtime confidant Roger Stone to 40 months in prison, about half as long as the prosecutors’ original recommendation for a term of seven to nine years.

But Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court of Washington ruled that the sentence would not be imposed until Stone has exhausted his efforts for a new trial. Stone’s lawyers say he deserves a retrial because one of the jurors who convicted him was biased against Trump.

The sentence amounts to a setback for Stone and Trump, who called the seven to nine years recommended by Justice Department prosecutors “horrible and very unfair,” and later praised Attorney General William Barr for “taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and should not have been brought.”

The president Thursday again weighed in on the trial on Twitter Thursday before the sentence was announced, suggesting that his conviction on charges of lying to Congress was unfair.

“They say Roger Stone lied to Congress.” @CNN OH, I see, but so did Comey (and he also leaked classified information, for which almost everyone, other than Crooked Hillary Clinton, goes to jail for a long time), and so did Andy McCabe, who also lied to the FBI! FAIRNESS?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2020

AG’s involvement in case questioned

Barr’s extraordinary decision last Tuesday to overturn the recommendation prompted four career prosecutors assigned to the case to withdraw in protest, and fueled concerns about the Justice Department’s historic independence from political influence.

Congressional Democrats demanded an investigation. More than 2,000 former Justice Department officials called on Barr to resign. And an association of federal judges summoned an emergency meeting to address concerns about political meddling in the country’s historically independent system of justice. That meeting was postponed on Wednesday.

Barr has defended his involvement in the case, saying he found the recommended sentence excessive and did not discuss it with Trump. He reportedly threatened to resign this week after Trump defied his request to stop tweeting about the Justice Department. A department spokeswoman said late Tuesday that Barr has no plans to resign.

The charges

Stone was convicted in November 2019 of seven counts of obstruction of justice, witness tampering and lying to Congress about his efforts during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign to obtain stolen emails of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton from the anti-secrecy website, WikiLeaks.

Stone, 66, is a veteran Republican operative who helped pave the way for Trump’s unforeseen ascent to the White House. A self-described “dirty trickster” with a taste for loud suits and colorful language, Stone has known Trump since the late 1970s and later encouraged Trump to run for president.

Mueller investigation

His criminal case stemmed from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of suspected ties between Trump campaign associates and Russia during the 2016 presidential election, an investigation Trump continues to blast as a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.”

Given Trump’s belief that Stone fell victim to a phony investigation, the sentencing has heightened speculation that Trump will issue a pardon to spare his friend any prison time.

Trump has not ruled out pardoning Stone, but in recent days, he’s batted away questions about clemency for his friend.

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After being flown from China to San Diego, California, 160 people were quarantined on a military base for two weeks while doctors determined if they were infected with the Coronavirus. VOA spoke to some of them when they were finally released. For VOA, Christina Shevchenko has more from San Diego in this report narrated by Anna Rice.

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German police say several people were shot to death in the city of Hanau on Wednesday evening.

The dpa news agency reported that police said people were killed but it was not clear exactly what was behind the incident. It also was not immediately clear how many people were dead.

Hanau is near Frankfurt.

Regional public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk reported, without citing sources, that an attack took place in a hookah lounge in the center of the city. It said witnesses reported hearing eight or nine shots and seeing at least one person lying on the ground.

The perpetrator or perpetrators then apparently went to another part of the city, where shots were fired in another hookah lounge, the broadcaster said.

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Canadian police said Wednesday that sudden whiteout conditions most likely triggered a massive pileup involving about 200 vehicles south of Montreal. 

There were no immediate reports of deaths, but Quebec provincial police said about a dozen people were sent to hospitals with minor to serious injuries after the midday crash in La Prairie, Quebec. 

Firefighters from La Prairie said two people were still trapped Wednesday afternoon, and authorities were trying to stabilize a diesel spill before extracting them from the wreckage. 

Those two people were considered to be in serious condition. 

The crash occurred around 12:30 p.m. on a stretch of Highway 15 that runs along the St. Lawrence River. The pileup of vehicles stretched for about a kilometer. 

Strong winds

Transport Minister Francois Bonnardel told reporters in Quebec City the pileup took place in an area where heavy winds come off the river, creating sudden blizzard-like conditions. 

“People were driving, there were strong winds … and, suddenly, you couldn’t see anything,” Bonnardel said. ”And then, well, the pileup started.” 

Two snow removal operations took place in the area in the hour before the incident, he noted. 

Bonnardel said the highway isn’t known for particular safety issues and 65,000 vehicles use the southbound part of it daily. 

The transport minister said he’d await the results of an investigation before deciding if any measures needed to be taken. 

Dozens need towing

Police spokesman Sergeant Stephane Tremblay said about 50 vehicles were able to drive away from the collision, but 75 others would need to be towed. Numerous vehicles were mangled, including several large trucks. 

About 150 people were taken by bus to a nearby community center for treatment and to be picked up. 

Tremblay said police crash experts would study what caused the pileup. 

A school bus was also involved in the pileup, but none of the high school students on board were injured, said Andree Laforest, the province’s acting public security minister. 
 

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A group of more than 1,100 U.S. military veterans from all five branches have signed a statement lashing out at President Donald Trump for firing Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council.

Vindman testified before a House committee during the Trump impeachment hearings in November. He expressed his concerns about Trump’s drive to push Ukraine to investigate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The Military Times newspaper published the statement, whose signatories invited other veterans to add their names.

The statement said the president’s “actions and insults” toward Vindman “appear to be motivated by nothing more than political retribution, and deprives the White House of expertise necessary to defend our collective national security.”

Long-standing U.S. military code of conduct requires servicemen and women to report wrongdoing and illegal acts through the proper military channels. But U.S. law forbids them from speaking out in public.

The veterans say Trump knows this and believes he can verbally attack Vindman with “impunity.”

“We consider President Trump’s sustained attacks on an active duty Army officer … to be an affront to the constitution that we have all sworn to uphold. We are speaking out precisely because neither LTC Vindman nor his fellow active-duty service members can,” the statement said.

The veterans’ statement also criticizes what they say is Trump’s association with those they call war criminals, his public threat of war crimes, and minimizing the traumatic brain injuries some troops suffered in January’s Iranian missile attack on a military base in Iraq.

The White House has not yet responded to the statement.

The Ukrainian-born Vindman was the NSC’s Director for European Affairs until he was reassigned three weeks ago.

The White House said Vindman was not fired and gave the official reason for his reassignment as downsizing within the NSC.

However, Trump has publicly accused Vindman of being a poor worker who did “a lot of bad things,” including allegations of leaking classified information — charges Vindman’s supporters deny.

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An international appeals court in the Netherlands has ordered Russia to pay $50 billion in compensation to shareholders of the former oil company, Yukos.

It is the latest chapter in a long-running saga that came to define Russia’s political and business climate in the early years of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

According to the ruling issued by The Hague Court of Appeal, Yukos — the one-time oil giant owned by Russian businessman-turned-Kremlin-foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky — unfairly lost tens of billions of dollars in revenue after Khodorkovsky was jailed and his company seized by the Russian government amid unpaid tax claims in 2004.

Tuesday’s ruling in effect reinstated an earlier 2014 court-ordered compensation package that had been overturned during a later appeal that went in Russia’s favor.

The court ruled that decision “not correct,” adding “the arbitration order is in force again.”

Yukos alumni and allies celebrated the decision. 

“This is a victory for the rule of law,” Tim Osborne, chief executive of GML, a company that represents Yukos shareholders, said in a statement. “The independent courts of a democracy have shown their integrity and served justice. A brutal kleptocracy has been held to account.”

Russia’s Justice Ministry indicated it would appeal the decision, arguing the court ”failed to take into account the illegitimate use by former Yukos shareholders of the Energy Charter Treaty that wasn’t ratified by the Russian Federation.”

The ministry also noted that a 2011 European Court for Human Rights review had rejected allegations the case against Yukos was politically motivated.

In a message posted on Facebook, Khodorkovsky denied that he had gained financially from the decision, but celebrated its outcome nonetheless.

“For it has confirmed not only in procedure but in essence: The seizure of Yukos was not about taxes, but a fight with a political opponent,” he said.

New president, ambitious oligarch

The Yukos case played an outsized role in defining what kind of Russia Putin would come to build.

On the surface, it was a business dispute. The Kremlin argued that Khodorkovsky and his company owed millions in unpaid taxes. In reality, it was more about politics and power.  

Putin, still relatively new to the Kremlin post in the early 2000s, sought to assert himself over powerful business barons — the so-called oligarchs — who had played a big role in government affairs under his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin.

Putin’s offer: Stay out of politics and keep your wealth.  

While some took the warning seriously, Khodorkovsky, then Russia’s wealthiest man, continued to openly fund Russia’s budding civil society and liberal political parties.  

To supporters, Khodorkovsky represented the best of an emerging Russian business culture — a reformed oligarch looking to play by western rules of transparency and fair play.

To his detractors, including Putin, he was merely a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  

The arrest

A turning point was a meeting with Putin and the business elite in 2003, in which Khodorkovsky and the Kremlin leader openly sparred over corruption.

Six months later, FSB agents stormed Khodorkovsky’s plane at a Siberian airport. Russia’s wealthiest man was now its most famous prisoner.  

An initial trial found him guilty of tax evasion and sentenced him to nine years in prison. A second criminal investigation added money laundering and additional years to Khodorkovsky’s prison term.

Amnesty International labeled the former tycoon a prisoner of conscience.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin oversaw Yukos’s dismantling, divvying up its prized assets to a new cadre of Kremlin loyalists at bargain prices until the oil giant was bankrupt.

Life after prison  

Putin freed Khodorkovsky as part of a wider amnesty ahead of the Sochi Games in 2014 — and a promise the businessman would stay out of politics.  

Yet Russia, and Putin, have remained the focus of Khodorkovsky’s work after he fled Russia for Europe.

He relaunched his NGO, Open Russia, with an eye toward reforming Russian civil society and insuring free and fair elections.  

The organization was put on Russia’s “undesirable organizations” list in 2017, and its employees were routinely hounded by police.

In a further sign that Khodorkovsky’s activities are perceived as a threat to the Kremlin, Putin proposed a ban on Russians who lived abroad from assuming the presidency, amid a wide-ranging set of reforms to the constitution earlier this year.  

The amendment, currently under review by Russian lawmakers, seemed almost tailor-made to Khodorkovsky.

And yet, it was another constitutional amendment suggested by Putin — that Russia no longer abide by international court decisions when it felt its state interests were infringed — that seemed to anticipate today’s Hague ruling in favor of compensation.

Indeed, while Khodorkovsky acknowledged money to Yukos would likely not be forthcoming, he waxed lyrical on Russia’s future beyond the Putin era. 

“Russia is my homeland. And my homeland has no secret accounts, does not rob companies, and has no political opponents,” Khodorkovsky said on Twitter. “It has only sons.”

Россия мне и не должна.
Россия – моя Родина, а Родина тайных счетов не имеет, компании не ворует и политических противников у нее нет. Только сыновья.
А вот с Кремлем счеты не закрыты и луж для всех кремлевских приготовлено еще не мало. pic.twitter.com/uzGrq5KZgy

— Ходорковский Михаил (@mich261213) February 18, 2020

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Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign plans to ask for a partial recount of the Iowa caucus results after the state Democratic Party releases the results of its recanvass.

Sanders campaign senior adviser Jeff Weaver told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that the campaign has had a representative in contact with the Iowa Democratic Party throughout the recanvass process. 

“Based on what we understand to be the results, we intend to ask for a recount,” Weaver said.

Slim margin separates Sanders, Buttigieg

The campaign expects that the already slim margin separating Sanders from Pete Buttigieg for the lead in Iowa will remain small enough that a recount would make a difference in the outcome.

The caucuses were roiled by significant issues in collecting and reporting data from individual precincts on caucus night. There were also errors in the complicated mathematical equations used to calculate the results in individual caucus sites that became evident as the party began to release caucus data throughout the week.

The AP reviewed the last reported results of the Iowa caucuses and decided that it remains unable to declare a winner based on the available information. The results, the AP says, may not be fully accurate and are still subject to potential revision.

In a recanvass, the Iowa Democratic Party would only update their reported results; they would not correct errors in the math, and party officials have said publicly that the only opportunity to correct the math would be a recount.

In a recount, party officials use the preference cards that caucusgoers filled out outlining their first and second choices in the room on caucus night and rerun all the math in each individual precinct.

The Iowa Democratic Party states in its Recount and Recanvass manual that “only evidence suggesting errors that would change the allocation of one or more National Delegates will be considered an adequate justification for a recount.”

Errors must be significant

That means the errors must be significant enough to change the outcome of the overall caucus.

Iowa awards 41 national delegates in its caucuses. As it stands, Buttigieg has 13 and Sanders has 12. Trailing behind are Elizabeth Warren with eight, Joe Biden with six and Amy Klobuchar with one.

The 41st and final delegate from Iowa will go to the overall winner. The caucus won’t formally come to an end until the recount is completed.

In its recanvass request, the Sanders campaign outlined 25 precincts and three satellite caucuses where it believes correcting faulty math could swing the delegate allocation in Sanders’ favor and deliver him, not Buttigieg, that final delegate.  

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Venezuela’s decision to suspend TAP Air Portugal’s flights to Caracas is “completely unfounded and unjustified,” Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva said Tuesday.

“I can’t see any kind of justification” for the 90-day suspension, Santos Silva said.

Venezuelan authorities took the step Monday after TAP last week carried opposition leader Juan Guaido and his uncle home from an international tour aimed at ousting President Nicolas Maduro.

Guaido’s uncle was arrested upon landing and accused of trying to bring a small amount of explosives into Venezuela. Portugal ordered an official investigation into that allegation, and Santos Silva said it hasn’t finished yet.

The suspension is a “hostile act” against Portugal, Santos Silva told national news agency Lusa, in comments published by online newspaper Observador.

Portugal is in a coalition of European and Latin American nations, called the “International Contact Group,” that has backed Guaido against Maduro. Thousands of Portuguese immigrants live in Venezuela.

Santos Silva said the suspension would also hurt Venezuelans because the Portuguese flag carrier is one of the few international airlines still serving Caracas, with twice weekly flights.

TAP said in a statement it “meets all the legal and safety requirements demanded” by authorities in both Portugal and Venezuela.

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Spain on Tuesday was searching for some 143 people missing on five migrant boats en route to the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, according to Spain’s maritime rescue service.
    
A Civil Guard plane was searching for the boats near the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, off the northwest coast of Africa, the service said.
    
Authorities were alerted about the missing boats on Monday afternoon.
    
Helena Maleno, of the human rights group Walking Borders, told The Associated Press the migrants, including women and children, are believed to have departed from the northwest coast of Africa between Friday and Saturday.
    
Although the total number of sea crossings to Spain decreased by more than 50% in 2019, arrivals via the dangerous Atlantic route to the Canary Islands doubled. According to the International Organization for Migration at least 210 people died on that route last year.

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A roadside bombing targeted a police vehicle in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing a policeman and wounding three others, officials said. The police were assigned to escort health workers during an anti-polio vaccination campaign in the region.
    
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing in Kolachi, a town in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which borders Afghanistan. Pakistan regularly carries out anti-polio drives, despite attacks and threats by the Taliban who claim the campaign is a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
    
Pakistani security forces were searching the area for the attackers, said police official Wahid Khan. No polio workers were travelling with the police at the time of the bombing, he added.
    
Attacks on anti-polio campaigns increased in the years following revelations that a fake hepatitis vaccination campaign was used as a ruse by the CIA in the hunt for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed by U.S. commandos in 2011 in Pakistan.
    
The latest attack came after Pakistan on Monday launched a three-day nationwide vaccination campaign against the crippling disease.
    
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only three countries in the world where polio is still endemic. Pakistan had hoped to make the country polio-free in 2018 but failed to meet the target because of a sudden surge in the new polio cases. Since January, 17 new cases of polio have been reported in Pakistan.

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Rebels have killed 12 civilians and a soldier in the latest overnight attack on a village in eastern Congo, a local official said Tuesday.

“They surprised the people in their homes,” the administrator of Beni territory, Donat Kasereka Kibwana, told The Associated Press.

The attack by Allied Democratic Forces rebels on Alungupa village, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) outside the often-targeted city of Beni, occurred while the president of the National Assembly was visiting the city and meeting with survivors of past massacres.

Jeanine Mabunda during her visit vowed that the assembly would create laws to augment the Congolese military presence in the Beni region. Residents have long accused the government in faraway Kinshasa of neglect.

Dozens of armed groups are active in mineral-rich eastern Congo. Attacks have caused tens of thousands of people to flee their homes and complicated health workers’ efforts to contain an Ebola virus outbreak in the region.

A local civil society group known as CEPADHO says ADF rebels have killed more than 300 people in the Beni region since October alone.

Kibwana said Alungupa village is now under military control. The administrator appealed for calm and collaboration with authorities.

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Many U.S. companies are collectively holding their breath wondering if Chinese factories will open Monday. China extended the Lunar New Year holiday because of the outbreak of the coronavirus, highlighting again how China is the world’s manufacturing capital. Michelle Quinn reports from San Francisco.

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