The Boston Globe - 17.10.2019

A2 The Boston Globe THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019

The Nation

The parents of Matthew

Shepard, the gay college stu-

dent murdered in 1998, as-

sailed Attorney General Wil-

liam Barr on Wednesday for

what they called hypocrisy on

LGBT rights during a Justice

Department ceremony com-

memorating a hate-crimes law

named after their son.

The ceremony, held in the

department’s Great Hall,

marked the 10th anniversary

of the Matthew Shepard and

James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes

Prevention Act, which was

signed by President Barack

Obama in October 2009.

The act expanded the 1969

federal hate-crime law to in-

clude crimes based on a vic-

tim’s sexual orientation, gen-

der identity, or disability.

Judy and Dennis Shepard,

unable to attend due to a prior

commitment, prepared a

statement that was read at the

ceremony by Cynthia Deitle, a

former FBI agent who is now

programs and operations di-

rector for the Denver-based

Matthew Shepard Foundation.

The Shepards praised Jus-

tice Department employees

who over the years have

worked to implement and en-

force the act, but they criti-

cized Barr — and by extension

President Trump’s administra-

tion — because the depart-

ment argued last week before

the Supreme Court that em-

ployers should be able to fire

employees because they are

transgender.

The administration also has

taken other steps to roll back

protections for LGBT people.

‘‘Mr. Barr, you cannot have

it both ways,’’ the Shepards’

statement said. ‘‘Either you be-

lieve in equality for all or you

don’t. We do not honor our

son by kowtowing to hypocri-

sy.’’

Many of the guests at the

ceremony rose for a standing

ovation after Deitle finished.

There was no immediate

response from the Justice De-

partment.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Shepard’s parents criticize Barr

Natalie D. Simms was in
shock as she stood, hands
raised, on the dimly lighted
side street in San Antonio. A
police officer looking for drugs
had failed to find anything af-
ter combing through her pock-
ets. But much to Simms’ hor-
ror, the search wasn’t over.
‘‘Spread your legs,’’ the offi-
cer allegedly told Simms.
On Aug. 8, 2016, Simms
was subjected to a public vagi-
nal cavity search during which
her tampon was pulled out in
view of male police officers
and others nearby, according
to a federal lawsuit filed last
year in the Western District of
Texas. Simms sued the city of
San Antonio and now-retired
San Antonio Police Depart-
ment detective Mara Wilson
for unspecified damages, alleg-
ing that the act was a ‘‘blatant
violation’’ of her constitutional
rights, and resulted ‘‘in signifi-
cant and lasting harm.’’
‘‘Natalie suffered through a
shocking display of what can
occur when police power is

unchecked,’’ Dean Malone, an

attorney for Simms, told

WOAI in 2018.

Now it appears the legal

battle may be ending. The city

is scheduled to vote Thursday

on a proposed settlement that

would award $205,000 to

Simms, according to an official

agenda. Simms and her lawyer

have agreed to the sum, the

San Antonio Express-News re-

ported, citing a city memo.

The potential payout of-

fered to Simms, 40, is not the

first of its kind in Texas. Last

January, officials in Harris

County paid $185,000 to a

Houston woman who alleged

in a federal lawsuit that her

constitutional rights were vio-

lated when two sheriff’s depu-

ties performed a cavity search

on her, the Houston Chronicle

reported. In that case, the set-

tlement drew backlash from

the woman’s lawyers and ad-

vocates, who decried the

amount as ‘‘an injustice,’’ ac-

cording to the Chronicle.

WASHINGTON POST

Settlement reached over cavity search

ORLANDO — The US Cen-

sus Bureau is acknowledging

that its nationwide request for

state driver’s license records is

the result of President Trump’s

order to gather records that

can better determine the num-

bers of citizens and nonciti-

zens across the United States.

The bureau has expanded

its request for state records in

response to Trump’s order, of-

ficials said in a statement

Tuesday.

Trump issued the order af-

ter the Supreme Court blocked

his administration’s efforts to

include a citizenship question

on the 2020 Census.

The agency made the ac-

knowledgement after the As-

sociated Press reported Mon-

day on the requests.

States already share re-

cords on food assistance and

other programs to help the bu-

reau track traditionally under-

counted populations and pin-

point vacant houses.

But civil rights advocates

worry that the wider net being

cast by the Trump administra-

tion for citizenship informa-

tion could chill Latino partici-

pation in the population

count, which will determine

how many congressional seats

each state gets and guide the

allocation of hundreds of bil-

lions of dollars of federal fund-

ing.

The results of the census al-

so will be used to redraw state

and local electoral maps.

Experts caution that inac-

curacies in state motor vehicle

records also make them a poor

choice for tracking citizenship.

The bureau said the records

it receives are stripped of iden-

tifiable information and used

for statistical purposes only.

‘‘Recently, the Census Bu-

reau expanded this request to

the states to include driver’s li-

cense administrative records

surrounding the executive or-

der on increasing the use of

administrative records for the

2020 Census,’’ the bureau

statement said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Census request tied to Trump order

Daily Briefing

LAKE FONG/PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE VIA AP

Margo Shear,

communication

manager of the

University of

Pittsburgh, looked

at the portrait of

her grandfather

Sam Shear, 93, of

Squirrel Hill, a

Holocaust survivor,

in the “Lest We

Forget” exhibit

Wednesday at the

Cathedral of

Learning in

Pittsburgh. The

exhibit, by German

artist Luigi

Toscano, features

60 life-size

photographs of

survivors.

THESHOAH,

THROUGH

THEIREYES

By Rachael Bade
and Erica Werner
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON — Majority
leader Mitch McConnell told
Republican senators Wednes-
day to be ready for an impeach-
ment trial of President Trump
as soon as Thanksgiving, as the
Senate began to brace for a po-
litical maelstrom that would
engulf the nation.
An air of inevitability has
taken hold in Congress, with
the expectation that Trump will
become the third president in
history to be impeached — and
that Republicans need to pre-
pare to defend the president.
While McConnell briefed sena-
tors on what would happen
during a Senate trial, House
GOP leaders convened what
they expect will be regular im-
peachment strategy sessions.
In their closed-door weekly
luncheon, McConnell gave a
presentation about the im-
peachment process and fielded
questions alongside his staff
and Senate Judiciary Commit-
tee Chairman Lindsey Graham,
Republican of South Carolina,
who was a manager for the
1998 impeachment of Presi-
dent Bill Clinton.
Impeachment is the first
step to remove a president,
with the House voting on for-
mal charges and the Senate
holding a trial in which it either

convicts or acquits him.

McConnell said the Senate

would likely meet six days a

week during the trial, lawmak-

ers said.

‘‘There’s sort of a planned ex-

pectation that it would be

sometimearoundThanksgiv-

ing, so you’d have basically

Thanksgiving to Christmas —

which would be wonderful be-

cause there’s no deadline in the

world like the next break to mo-

tivate senators,’’ Senator Kevin

Cramer, Republican of North

Dakota, said.

During the meeting, Gra-

ham lobbied his colleagues to

consider a public declaration in

a letter to House Speaker Nancy

Pelosi, Democrat of California,

which would describe Trump’s

July 25 call with Ukrainian

President Volodymyr Zelensky

seeking an investigation into a

domestic political rival as ‘‘un-

impeachable.’’ Some senators,

however, pushed back against

that idea, arguing that Trump

would assume that those who

did not sign the document

would be persuadable on a vote

to oust him.

The GOP’s internal reality

check on Trump’s impeach-

ment comes as House Demo-

crats have had success securing

damaging testimony from cur-

rent and former State Depart-

ment and National Security

Council officials, many of

whom are voicing long-held

concerns about Trump’s actions

on Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Michael

McKinley, the former senior ad-

viser to Secretary of State Mike

Pompeo, testified that he re-

signed from his post of more

than 25 years last week because

State Department officials were

being mistreated — and be-

cause he disapproved of using

foreign policy to advance politi-

cal prospects.

‘‘I was disturbed by the im-

plication that foreign govern-

ments were being approached

to procure negative informa-

tion on political opponents,’’ he

told lawmakers in an opening

statement. ‘‘I was convinced

that this would also have a seri-

ous impact on Foreign Service

morale and the integrity of our

work overseas.’’

Gordon Sondland, the US

ambassador to the European

Union — who is described in

testimony as one of the ‘‘three

amigos’’ designated to pressure

Ukraine into investigating the

Bidens — is scheduled to testify

Thursday.

Republicans have been try-

ing to coalesce around an im-

peachment strategy for weeks,

lawmakers and aides say. In the

House, they have decried the

process as unfair and secretive

— even as GOP members of the

investigative committees have

fully participated in deposing

the witnesses.

On Wednesday, Trump allies

showed up to McKinley’s depo-

sition and tried to enter the pri-

vate meeting room. They were

denied entry, as they are not

members of the House panels.

‘‘If this case was so strong,

why aren’t we doing it in front

of the American people instead

of behind closed doors?’’ asked

Representative Chris Stewart,

Republican of Utah, a member

of the House Intelligence Com-

mittee who took part in the pro-

ceedings.

The House GOP criticism

has unnerved some moderate

Democrats, who began asking

leaders about whether Republi-

cans were being treated unfair-

ly. In a letter to colleagues

Wednesday, House Intelligence

Committee chairman Adam

Schiff sought to dispel those no-

tions, pointing out that Republi-

cans on the relevant committees

have been included in the probe

and questioned witnesses.

‘‘The special counsels in the

Nixon and Clinton impeach-

ments conducted their investi-

gations in private and we must

initially do the same,’’ the Cali-

fornia Democrat wrote. ‘‘It is of

paramount importance to en-

sure that witnesses cannot co-

ordinate their testimony with

one another to match their de-

scription of events, or potential-

ly conceal the truth.’’

McConnell tells GOP to prepare for a trial

Former Pompeo

aide testifies for

House panel By Nicholas Fandos

and Adam Goldman

NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — A for-

mer top White House foreign

policy adviser told House im-

peachment investigators this

week that she viewed Gordon

Sondland, the US ambassa-

dor to the European Union,

as a potential national securi-

ty risk because he was so un-

prepared for his job, accord-

ing to two people familiar

with her private testimony.

The adviser, Fiona Hill,

did not accuse Sondland of

acting maliciously or inten-

tionally putting the country

at risk. But she described

Sondland, a hotelier and

Trump donor-turned-ambas-

sador, as metaphorically driv-

ing in an unfamiliar place

with no guardrails and no

GPS, according to the people,

who were not authorized to

publicly discuss a deposition

done behind closed doors.

Hill, former senior direc-

tor for European and Russian

affairs at the White House,

said that she raised her con-

cerns with intelligence offi-

cials inside the White House,

one of the people said.

In her testimony, Hill de-

scribed her fears Sondland

represented a counterintelli-

gence risk because

his actions made

him vulnerable to

governments that

could exploit his

inexperience. She

said Sondland

used a personal

cellphone for offi-

cial business and

repeatedly told for-

eign officials they

were welcome at

the White House whenever

they liked. Hill said his invita-

tions prompted one instance

in which Romanian officials

arrived without appoint-

ments, citing Sondland.

Hill also testified Sond-

land held himself out to for-

eign officials as someone who

could deliver meetings at the

White House while providing

cellphone numbers of US offi-

cials to foreigners, the people

said. Those actions created

additional counterintelli-

gence risks, she said.

Sondland is to meet pri-

vately with impeachment in-

vestigators Thurs-

day, despite direc-

tions from the State

Department and

White House that

he and others not

cooperate. The

president and his

senior advisers

view the investiga-

tion as illegitimate.

Hill said she and

her boss, John Bol-

ton, then national security

adviser, were so concerned

that Hill alerted White House

lawyers. She told the commit-

tees Bolton wanted it clear he

was not part of whatever

“drug deal” Sondland and

Mick Mulvaney, acting White

House chief of staff, were

crafting on Ukraine.

Gordon

Sondland is

scheduled to

testify Thursday.

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