Los Angeles Times - 09.08.2019

A1 2 FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 2019 WST LATIMES.COM

WASHINGTON — For-

mer FBI Deputy Director

Andrew McCabe, a frequent

target of President Trump’s

ire, sued the FBI and the

Justice Department on

Thursday over his firing.

The lawsuit, the second

this week from a former FBI

official challenging the cir-

cumstances of his termina-

tion, says the firing was part

of Trump’s plan to rid the

bureau of leaders he per-

ceived as disloyal to him.

The complaint contends

that the two officials respon-

sible for demoting and then

firing McCabe — FBI Direc-

tor Christopher A. Wray and

former Atty. Gen. Jeff Ses-

sions — created a pretext to

force him out in accordance

with the president’s wishes.

The stated reason for the

firing was that McCabe had

misled investigators over his

involvement in a news media

leak, but McCabe says the

real reason was “his refusal

to pledge allegiance to a sin-

gle man.”

The president “deman-

ded plaintiff ’s personal alle-

giance, he sought retaliation

when plaintiff refused to give

it, and Sessions, Wray and

others served as Trump’s

personal enforcers rather

than the nation’s highest law

enforcement officials, cater-

ing to Trump’s unlawful

whims instead of honoring

their oaths to uphold the

Constitution,” the lawsuit

says.

The federal complaint ac-

cuses the FBI and Justice

Department of straying

from established policies,

with Wray refusing to tell

McCabe why he was being

fired and a senior Justice De-

partment lawyer telling Mc-

Cabe’s own attorney that

they were “making it up as

[they] go along.”

It says the government

sped up disciplinary pro-

ceedings so McCabe could

be fired ahead of his planned

retirement and without re-

ceiving full benefits. The

lawsuit asks for a judge to

declare McCabe’s firing un-

constitutional and to de-

clare him entitled to his full

pension and other benefits.

Spokespeople for the FBI

and Justice Department de-

clined to comment Thurs-

day.

McCabe has been a tar-

get of Trump’s attacks since

even before he was elected,

after news emerged in fall

2016 that McCabe’s wife had

accepted campaign contrib-

utions from former Virginia

Gov. Terry McAuliffe during

an unsuccessful run for the

state Senate there. McAu-

liffe is a close ally of Trump’s

2016 Democratic rival, Hilla-

ry Clinton, who was being in-

vestigated at the time for us-

ing a personal email server.

The attacks continued

after Trump’s victory, with

the president working to

force McCabe from govern-

ment by pressuring Ses-

sions, Deputy Atty. Gen.

Rod Rosenstein and others,

the lawsuit says.

After McCabe refused on

policy grounds to publicly

rebut a news story about

contacts between Russia

and Trump campaign asso-

ciates, then-White House

Chief of Staff Reince Priebus

told McCabe that he and the

FBI were “not being good

partners” to Trump, accord-

ing to the complaint.

“Trump’s purge targeted

plaintiff in particular be-

cause Trump had already

decided during the 2016 U.S.

presidential campaign that

plaintiff was his partisan en-

emy by virtue of plaintiff ’s

marriage,” the lawsuit said.

McCabe was fired in

March 2018 after a Justice

Department inspector gen-

eral report found he had re-

peatedly misstated his in-

volvement in a news media

disclosure regarding FBI in-

vestigations involving Clin-

ton. The watchdog office re-

ferred the matter to the U.S.

attorney’s office in Washing-

ton, which has been investi-

gating.

McCabe has denied any

wrongdoing, and has said

that when he felt his answers

were being misunderstood,

he tried to correct them.

On Tuesday, former FBI

Agent Peter Strzok, who was

fired over derogatory text

messages he sent about

Trump, also sued the FBI

and Justice Department. He

said the FBI had been influ-

enced by “unrelenting pres-

sure” from the president

when it fired him.

McCabe spent 21 years

with the FBI. He became

acting director in May 2017

after the president fired

former director James B.

Comey.

Former top FBI official

sues agencies for firing

associated press

ANDREW McCABE

says President Trump

was behind his firing.

Alex BrandonAssociated Press

WASHINGTON — The
Twitter account for Mitch
McConnell’s reelection cam-
paign was locked after it
posted videos of what it de-
scribed as “violent threats”
against the top Senate GOP
leader by protesters outside
his home Monday in Louis-
ville, Ky.
The temporary suspen-
sion, which the company
confirmed, comes as Presi-
dent Trump ramps up criti-
cism of social media for its
alleged anti-conservative bi-
as, while offering little evi-
dence.
“We appealed and Twit-
ter stood by their decision,
saying our account will
remain locked until we de-
lete the video,” McConnell’s
campaign manager, Kevin
Golden, said in a statement.
While shutting down Mc-
Connell’s account, Twitter
Inc. had allowed a hashtag
threatening him to spread,
Golden said.
An emailed fundraising
appeal signed by McConnell
described the video as show-
ing “a left-wing mob making
violent threats against me
outside my home” and urg-
ing potential donors to help
him “fight social media cen-
sorship.”
The company said in a

statement that the lockout

occurred because of “a

Tweet that violated our vi-

olent threats policy, specif-

ically threats involving phys-

ical safety.” The site bans the

sharing of threats of vi-

olence, even against oneself,

as well as “glorification of vi-

olence.”

Trump is pressuring so-

cial media companies to ex-

pand their efforts to stop vi-

olent extremism after a se-

ries of shootings. The White

House has invited unidenti-

fied companies to discuss vi-

olent extremism online on

Friday.

The platforms’ previous

efforts to shut down abusive

rhetoric have prompted

criticism from political ac-

counts, often on the right,

that they were being si-

lenced.

Social media platforms

reject the notion that they

engage in political censor-

ship.

The companies have

clashed with congressional

leadership from both parties

in recent months. In May,

Facebook Inc. refused to

take down an edited video of

Nancy Pelosi that made it

look like she was slurring her

words, prompting a sharp

rebuke from the Democratic

House speaker.

Brody and Litvan write for

Bloomberg.

Twitter locks

McConnell’s

campaign feed

By Ben Brody
and Laura Litvan

TWITTERtemporarily suspended the account for
Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign over a video.

Timothy D. EasleyAssociated Press

JACKSON, Miss. — Mis-

sissippi residents rallied

around terrified children left

with no parents and mi-

grants locked themselves in

their homes for fear of being

arrested Thursday, a day af-

ter the United States’ largest

immigration raid in a dec-

ade.

A total of 680 people were

arrested in Wednesday’s

raids, but more than 300 had

been released by Thursday

morning, U.S. Immigration

and Customs Enforcement

spokesman Bryan Cox said

in an email.

Cox said 30 of those who

had been released were let

go at the food-processing

plants, while about 270 were

released after being taken to

a military hangar after the

raids. He did not give a rea-

son except to say that those

released at the plants were

let go because of “humani-

tarian factors.”

“They were placed into

proceedings before the fed-

eral immigration courts and

will have their day in court at

a later date,” he said.

A small group seeking in-

formation about immi-

grants caught up in the raids

gathered Thursday morning

outside one of the targeted

companies: the Koch Foods

Inc. plant in Morton, a town

of about 3,000 people about

40 miles east of the capital of

Jackson.

“The children are

scared,” said Ronaldo

Tomas, who identified him-

self as a worker at another

Koch Foods plant in town

that wasn’t raided. Tomas,

speaking in Spanish, said he

has a cousin with two chil-

dren who was detained in

one of the raids.

Gabriela Rosales, a resi-

dent of Morton who knows

some of those detained,

said she understands that

“there’s a process and a law”

for those living in the coun-

try illegally. “But the thing

that they did is devastating,”

she said. “It was very devas-

tating to see all those kids

crying, having seen their

parents for the last time.”

On Wednesday, about

600 Immigration and Cus-

toms Enforcement agents

fanned out across plants op-

erated by five companies,

surrounding the perimeters

to prevent workers from flee-

ing. Those arrested were

taken to the military hangar

to be processed for immigra-

tion violations.

Before the raid, ICE offi-

cials indicated many people

would be released with a no-

tice to appear in court be-

cause they had never before

been through deportation

proceedings. Those people

were not jailed, but probably

won’t be able to resume their

old jobs because the federal

government alleges they are

here illegally.

ICE officials said others

would be released if they

were pregnant, had small

children at home, or had se-

rious health problems.

Koch Foods, one of the

country’s largest poultry

producers, based in the Chi-

cago suburb of Park Ridge,

said in a statement Thurs-

day that it follows strict pro-

cedures to make sure full-

time employees are eligible

to work in the country. The

company said it vets the

employees through the fed-

eral government database

E-Verify. The company also

relies on temporary workers

that come through a third-

party service tasked with

checking employee eligibili-

ty, said company spokesman

Jim Gilliland.

In Morton, workers were

loaded into multiple buses

on Wednesday — some for

men and some for women —

at the Koch Foods plant. At

one point, about 70 family,

friends and residents waved

goodbye and shouted, “Let

them go! Let them go!”

The Rev. Mike O’Brien,

pastor of Sacred Heart of Je-

sus Catholic Church in Can-

ton, Miss., said he waited

outside the Peco Foods

plant in the city until 4 a.m.

Thursday for workers re-

turning by bus. O’Brien said

he visited a number of pa-

rishioners whose relatives

had been arrested. He said

he also drove home a person

who had hidden from au-

thorities inside the plant.

“The people are all

afraid,” he said. “Their doors

are locked, and they won’t

answer their doors.”

Children whose parents

were detained were being

cared for by other family

members and friends, O’Bri-

en said.

“They’re circling the wag-

ons that way and taking care

of each other,” he said.

The Mississippi Depart-

ment of Child Protection

Services is investigating

whether any immigrant chil-

dren are in need of foster

care while their parents are

in detention, spokeswoman

Lea Ann Brandon said.

Martha Rogers, chair-

man and chief executive of

the Bank of Morton, said

businesses across town

would be affected. Rogers

said many Spanish-speak-

ing residents had become

customers.

“We’ve all been greatly

upset,” Rogers said.

ATOTAL of 680 people were arrested in Wednesday’s raids in Mississippi; over 300 were reportedly released.

Department of Homeland Security

ICE raids in Mississippi sow

fear among poultry workers

associated press

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