The Boston Globe - 02.08.2019

A2 The Boston Globe FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2019

The Nation

DENVER — A mother
pleaded guilty Thursday to
child abuse resulting in the
death of her 7-year-old son,
whose body was found in a
Denver storage unit, in a deal
requiring her cooperation with
prosecutors who have charged
the boy’s father with murder.
The plea agreement ap-
proved by a judge recom-
mends that Elisha Pankey
spend between 16 and 32
years in prison. Prosecutors
said she will not be sentenced
until after the trial of her hus-
band, Leland Pankey.
Elisha Pankey, 43, did not
speak during the brief court
appearance aside from an-
swering a judge’s questions
about her understanding of
the agreement.
Previously released court
documents revealed that she
began cooperating with inves-
tigators two months after she

was charged. She told investi-

gators in March that her hus-

band physically abused Caden

McWilliams and was not feed-

ing the boy. She also told po-

lice that her husband kept

their son in a dog kennel ‘‘a

few days’’ before he died in

mid-July at a hotel where the

family had been living.

Police also spoke with a

witness, who said the mother

told her the boy stayed in the

kennel overnight despite his

cries of being thirsty and hot.

The woman said Pankey told

her the boy was dead one

morning and she believed he

had suffocated.

The witness also told police

that Pankey said she and her

husband took Caden’s body to

the storage unit, where they

poured concrete over him and

wrapped the dog kennel in

plastic trash bags.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Colo.motherpleadsguiltyinson’sdeath

WASHINGTON — A feder-

al judge cleared the way

Thursday for Roger Stone to

stand trial in November on

charges of lying to Congress

and obstructing justice, deny-

ing his motions to dismiss his

indictment or find selective

prosecution by former special

counsel Robert Mueller’s Rus-

sia probe.

US District Judge Amy

Berman Jackson of Washing-

ton granted Stone’s request

for more access to unredacted

portions of Mueller’s 448-

page report regarding his

case but otherwise rejected

his challenges to Mueller’s

authorization as special coun-

sel, the legality of the funding

for Mueller’s office, and his

contention that he should not

have been prosecuted with-

out a referral from Congress

on the matter.

‘‘While the Court will re-

quire the government to pro-

vide the defendant with the

bulk of the material redacted

from the Report of the Spe-

cial Counsel that relates to

him, it concludes that the de-

fense has not identified any

legal grounds that would sup-

port dismissing or enjoining

this action,’’ Jackson wrote.

The judge concluded: ‘‘It is

fair to say that Roger Stone

has no one but himself to

blame for the fact that he was

investigated by the Depart-

ment of Justice.’’

Stone, 66, has pleaded not

guilty to charges that he lied

about his efforts to gather in-

formation about Democratic

Party e-mails allegedly

hacked by Russian operatives

during the presidential cam-

paign and released through

the anti-secrecy group

WikiLeaks and others.

WASHINGTON POST

Stonelosesbidtohavecasedismissed

Wealthy people charged
with crimes don’t have a right
to be freed from jail and
watched at home by private
guards, the federal appeals
court weighing Jeffrey Ep-
stein’s appeal of his bail request
ruled in a separate case.
The US Court of Appeals for
the Second Circuit in New York
on Thursday refused to over-
turn a bail ruling that kept
Jean Boustani, an executive of
the Privinvest family of mari-

time services companies, be-

hind bars. Boustani had asked

to be released to home confine-

ment while awaiting trial for

his part in an alleged $2 billion

money laundering scheme.

The appeals court discussed

the issue of private armed secu-

rity guards for wealthy defen-

dants — a request made by Ep-

stein, who’s charged with traf-

ficking underage girls for sex

and is now appealing a lower-

court judge’s refusal to release

him on bail. The ruling could

doom Epstein’s own bid be-

cause the judges are likely to

apply the same logic.

“A similarly situated defen-

dant of lesser means surely

would be detained pending tri-

al, and Boustani is not permit-

ted to avoid such a result by re-

lying on his own financial re-

sources to pay for a private

jail,” the court said in an opin-

ion.

BLOOMBERG NEWS

Judgerejectsprivateguardsinbaildealsforwealthydefendants

Daily Briefing

By Erica Werner
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON — The Sen-
ate passed a broad, two-year
budget deal Thursday that
boosts spending and elimi-
nates the threat of a debt de-
fault until past the 2020 elec-
tion, while reducing chances
for another government shut-
down. The legislation now goes
to President Trump, who is ex-
pected to sign it despite conser-
vative complaints that it will
fuel the nation’s runaway debt.
‘‘Budget Deal is phenome-
nal for our Great Military, our
Vets, and Jobs, Jobs, Jobs! Two
year deal gets us past the Elec-
tion. Go for it Republicans,
there is always plenty of time to
CUT!’’ Trump wrote on Twitter
ahead of the 67-28 vote.
Republican leaders, includ-
ing Trump himself, had been
working to round up GOP sup-
port ahead of Thursday’s vote,
trying to avoid a repeat of the
outcome in the House last
week, when a majority of Re-
publican lawmakers ignored
Trump’s pleas and voted
against the deal. It passed the
House anyway, on the strength

of Democratic votes. The lob-

bying effort paid off in the Sen-

ate, as more Republicans voted

in favor of the deal than against

it.

The agreement heads off

several looming fiscal threats,

most immediately the possibili-

ty that the Treasury Depart-

ment could have run out of

money to pay its bills as early

as September if Congress didn’t

act, resulting in a market-shat-

tering default on US obliga-

tions.

The deal passed Thursday

suspends the debt ceiling

through July 31, 2021, remov-

ing the threat of default and

the accompanying risk of polit-

ical brinkmanship that typical-

ly accompanies debt limit ne-

gotiations. It lifts strict Obama-

era spending caps that would

otherwise slash indiscriminate-

ly into agency and military

budgets, and sets overall

spending levels that will make

it easier for lawmakers to write

the individual appropriations

bills needed to keep the gov-

ernment open past Oct. 1,

when current agency budgets

expire.

The deal came together af-

ter weeks of intense negotia-

tions between the Trump

White House and Speaker Nan-

cy Pelosi, a California Demo-

crat, which proceeded even as

the president sparred with

House Democrats on multiple

other fronts and increasing

numbers of them called for his

impeachment. The agreement

stands as a rare example of bi-

partisan legislating in the

Trump era, and is one of the

few major votes Congress will

take this year.

Passage of the bill was the

Senate’s last act before leaving

town for an extended summer

recess, on the tails of House

members, who adjourned last

week. Lawmakers will return

to the Capitol after Labor Day

to confront a thin legislative

agenda, including the pending

North American trade deal,

whichfacesanuncertainout-

come.

The deal passed Thursday

increases military and domes-

tic spending by $320 billion

over two years compared to ex-

isting law. It increases overall

discretionary spending from

$1.32 trillion in the 2019 fiscal

year to $1.37 trillion in 2020

and $1.375 trillion in 2021.

Discretionary spending is

the money controlled by Con-

gress and does not include pro-

grams like Social Security and

Medicare, which account for

about two-thirds of federal

spending.

The government spends

more money than it brings in

through revenue, and it covers

the difference by issuing debt.

But the Treasury Department

can issue debt only up to a limit

set by Congress, known as the

debt ceiling. If the debt ceiling

is not lifted, the government

could fall behind on some of its

payments, which could spark

another financial crisis.

The government now

spends roughly $4.4 trillion

and is expected to bring in

roughly $3.5 trillion in reve-

nue, leaving a gap of between

$900 billion and $1 trillion.

Trump had — before becom-

ing president — suggested that

the debt ceiling shouldn’t be

raised. But in the current

round of negotiations, Trea-

sury Secretary Steven Mnuchin

argued for the need to ensure

stability by raising the debt

ceiling, and he prevailed over

budget hawks in the adminis-

tration, such as acting budget

director Russ Vought, who

were pushing for significant

cuts to accompany the deal.

GOP supporters of the bud-

get pact, including majority

leader Mitch McConnell, a

Kentucky Republican, focused

on lifting the debt ceiling as

well as the increase in the Pen-

tagon budget in arguing that

the agreement was a good deal

for Republicans, and the best

that could be achieved under a

divided government.

But a number of Senate Re-

publicans, including some who

support Trump strongly on

most issues, were reluctant to

go along. The national debt

now stands at $22 trillion, but

the deal makes no attempt to

rein in spending, take on enti-

tlements, or make any struc-

tural changes many Republi-

cans say are necessary to re-

form Washington’s

dysfunctional budget process.

Senatepasses2-yearbudget,suspendsdebtceiling

Billreduceschancesoffuturegovernmentshutdown

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (left) smiled after

passing a hard-won spending deal with bipartisan support.

MARK LENNIHAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

FAMILY’S SORROW —Juan Rodriguez, with his son Tristan and wife Marissa, left Bronx Criminal Court in New York

after pleading not guilty to manslaughter and other charges in the deaths of their 1-year-old twins, left in a car on
Friday while he was at work. Rodriguez reportedly told police he thought he had dropped the twins off at day care.

By Nicholas Fandos

NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON — On Mon-

day, it was a soft-spoken senior

member of the Congressional

Black Caucus, Representative

Emanuel Cleaver, of Missouri.

On Tuesday, the careful chair-

man of the House Foreign Af-

fairs Committee, Representa-

tive Eliot L. Engel, of New

York, threw in his support. So

did Representatives Jennifer

Wexton and Jason Crow, fresh-

men who flipped Republican

seats in Virginia and Colorado.

On Wednesday, the influen-

tial chairwoman of the House

Appropriations Committee,

Representative Nita M. Lowey

of New York, added her voice.

The trickle of Democrats

coming out in favor of opening

a full impeachment inquiry is

threatening to turn into a

flood, raising pressure on

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Demo-

crat of California, to take the

full House vote she has tried to

avoid all year. This week alone,

a dozen Democrats have an-

nounced support for an inqui-

ry, and with at least 116 de-

clared supporters, the backers

of an impeachment inquiry are

more than halfway to the 218

votes they need in the House.

They are two shy of a majority

of the Democratic Caucus.

It was not necessarily sup-

posed to go that way. The

House’s departure Friday was

expected to lower the issue’s

temperature. An unexpected

declaration by the House Judi-

ciary Committee in court pa-

pers that an impeachment in-

vestigation was in effect al-

ready underway might well

have cooled matters further.

But far from relieving the

pressure, the Judiciary Com-

mittee’s maneuver may have

eased the way for more Demo-

crats to come forward. Two

high-ranking senators, Patty

Murray of Washington and

Debbie Stabenow of Michigan,

also joined the fray this week.

“The president’s repeated

abuses have brought American

democracy to a perilous cross-

roads,” Engel said. “Following

the guidance of the Constitu-

tion — which I have sworn to

uphold — is the only way to

achieve justice.”

For now, there are few signs

the rising support will trans-

late into changes in the House

Democratic leadership’s ap-

proach to an issue that deeply

divides the country.

Pelosi and her top lieuten-

ants remain skeptical of ad-

vancing a full-bore impeach-

ment without broader public

support and are steering the

caucusforwardwithonefoot

tapping the brakes.

They want to see if the

House can use the courts to

free up information and wit-

nesses related to Special Coun-

sel Robert Mueller’s investiga-

tion that are being blocked by

the White House before reach-

ing conclusions — a process

that could take months, at

best.

Democratic leaders always

recognized the August break

could be an inflection point for

some lawmakers, when con-

versations with constituents

could push them toward en-

dorsing impeachment. But the

drive toward an inquiry seems

driven as much by Capitol Hill

politics as by any push from

voters. Impeachment was

barely a whisper in two nights

of Democratic debates.

Quigley said members’

views are being shaped by a

range of factors, including pos-

sible primary challenges, Mu-

eller’s testimony last week,

comments by Trump that are

widely condemned as racist,

and the administration’s refus-

al to comply with certain inves-

tigative requests by Congress.

Republicans are watching

for what they believe could be

a suicidal decision by Demo-

crats. Trump has been eager to

paint his opposition as ignor-

ing the real needs of voters in

favor of a blind pursuit of him.

When Democratic Repre-

sentative Kim Schrier of Wash-

ington, who narrowly flipped a

Republican seat in 2018, an-

nounced her support this week

for an inquiry, the House Re-

publican Conference’s cam-

paign arm denounced her as a

“deranged socialist” who was

“so blinded by her hatred of

President Trump that she is

perpetuating impeachment

conspiracy theories instead of

working for her constituents.”

That campaign arm, the

National Republican Congres-

sional Committee, used simi-

larly colorful language to tar

Crow, who won a suburban

district in Denver, and Wexton,

who took a Northern Virginia

seat.

It is even going after vulner-

able Democrats, like Represen-

tative Abigail Spanberger of

Virginia, who do not support

voting to open an inquiry but

have said the Judiciary Com-

mittee and others should stay

their course.

Callsforinquiryon

impeachmentgrow,

pressuringPelosi

Butfornow,

leadersseecourt

actionasbestbet

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein

had sought a similar

arrangement in his case.