The Washington Post - 11.03.2020

wednesday, march 11 , 2020. the washington post eZ sU A

teXAs

Infowars host J ones charged with DWI

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was arrested in Te xas on a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated, authorities said Tuesday. Jones was booked into an Austin jail shortly after midnight and released on bond a few hours later, Travis County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Kristen Dark said. Jones is being sued in Austin by the parents of a 6-year-old victim of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre who claim the Infowars host used his show to promote falsehoods that the shooting was a hoax. His attorney in that case did not immediately respond to a Tuesday message seeking comment about his arrest. An article posted on his Infowars website said Jones discussed the arrest on his show Tuesday and claimed that his blood alcohol level was under the legal limit of .08 percent. — Associated Press

the compensation. The Senate previously passed the bill. Williams and his nephew, Nathan Myers, were convicted of the 1976 fatal shooting of Jeanette Williams and the attempted murder of Nina Marshall in Jacksonville. Williams was at first sentenced to death and spent four years on death row before being resentenced to life in prison. No physical evidence linked the men to the crime. Marshall, who has since died, was the only witness, and her testimony contradicted evidence gathered by investigators that has since called her credibility into question. Both men were released from prison last March. Myers was eligible for $2 million in compensation under state law, but Williams isn’t because he was previously convicted of two unrelated felonies. That’s why lawmakers need to authorize the payment from the state’s general revenue. — Associated Press

Bishop John LeVoir apologized to sexual abuse survivors during the hearing, where U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel gave final approval to the settlement. Several survivors of clergy sexual abuse testified tearfully at the hearing, the Star Tribune reported. The diocese serving Catholics in southern and west-central Minnesota also agreed to implement 17 child protection protocols. The diocese filed for bankruptcy protection three years ago and reached the settlement last June. All 93 claimants have approved terms of the settlement, the Star Tribune reported. The New Ulm diocese is among several Roman Catholic dioceses in Minnesota that have filed for bankruptcy protection amid child sex abuse claims or are considering it. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis emerged from bankruptcy in December 2018, three months after a federal bankruptcy judge approved a $210 million settlement. Last May, the Diocese of Duluth reached a $40 million settlement with dozens of people who said they were abused as children by priests. — Associated Press

FLORiDA

Lawmakers vote for payment to ex-inmate

A former death row inmate who spent 43 years in prison for a murder authorities now say he didn’t commit would be compensated more than $2 million under a bill the Florida Legislature sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Tuesday. Clifford Williams, 76, stood with his family as the House voted unanimously to provide

MiNNesOtA

St. Paul teachers

go on strike

Te achers in St. Paul went on
strike Tuesday, canceling classes
indefinitely for the district’s
roughly 36,000 students, after
overnight contract negotiations
ended without an agreement on
issues including mental health
and bilingual support for
students.
Union members hoisted strike
signs and picketed outside public
schools early Tuesday, then
gathered for an afternoon rally
and march to the St. Paul Public
Schools district offices. The
walkout was the first for the
district since 1946 and left some
parents scrambling to find
alternative child care.
The school district and the St.
Paul Federation of Educators,
which represents about 3,
teachers and support staff,
negotiated for six straight days
and, despite a mediation session
that lasted until 3 a.m. Tuesday,
were unable to come to terms.
Superintendent Joe Gothard
said the district did everything it
could to avoid a walkout.
The union’s priorities include
hiring more mental health
professionals, multilingual
staffers, special-education
teachers and restorative
practices specialists. The district
has said creating mental health
teams at every school would cost
$27 million a year.
— Associated Press

Judge approves deal

with abuse victims

A bankruptcy judge on
Tuesday approved a $34 million
settlement between the Diocese
of New Ulm in Minnesota and
nearly 100 people who say they
were sexually abused by priests
and others.

Digest

Politics & the Nation

Pierson had informed the bi- partisan House Intelligence Com- mittee panel that Russia had “developed a preference” f or Trump in 2020. She did not say that Rus- sia had taken steps based on that preference to intervene on behalf of Trump, an intelligence official said. But that nuance apparently did not mollify Trump, who when informed of her briefing grew an- gry and suspicious that Demo- crats might try to leak that assessment to undermine his bid for reelection. Soon after, Trump replaced his then-acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire, whom he apparently blamed for Pierson’s briefing, with Richard Grenell, a Trump loyalist and the U.S. ambassador to Germany. On Tuesday, senators also were disconcerted that Grenell, as the head o f the intelligence community, was not present, s aid one of the people briefed on the session. The heads of other a gencies, including acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf, were there, and Grenell had been scheduled to appear, according to a list of par- ticipants circulated to lawmakers on Monday. But Grenell declined to go to the Hill, citing apprehension about his preparedness to address sensitive subjects that tend to up- set the president, according to three people familiar with the matter. He asked Trump to be excused from the briefings because he an-

ticipated pointed questions from Democrats about politically vola- tile subjects — such as intelligence assessments that Russia is once more interfering in U.S. politics, two people familiar with the matter said. They, too, spoke on the condition of anonymity to de- scribe p rivate discussions. Maura Beard, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), said in a statement that the agency never told Congress that Grenell would participate in the briefing. She said so despite the list circulated to lawmakers Monday show- ing that he was scheduled. “FBI and DHS are the lead in charge of securing our elections, and the [intelligence community] is participating in today’s briefings in support of that mission,” Beard’s statement said, referring to the Department of Homeland Security. “The [intelligence community] is focused on detecting and countering foreign election- related threats.” Grenell’s name had been included in the list of briefers given to Congress on Feb. 27 as well, people familiar with the matter said, along with other national security officials including Wray, Nakasone and Wolf. The latest list of briefers, pro- vided to Congress on Tuesday morning, included Evanina i n lieu of Grenell. Trump has long chafed at no- tions that Russia h as interfered in or sought to intervene in the elec-

tion, dating back to his pique at the U.S. intelligence community’s unanimous conclusion that Mos- cow took steps to aid his election in 2016. “There is another Russia, Rus- sia, Russia meeting today,” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. “It is headed up by corrupt politician [House Intelligence Committee Chairman] Adam “Shifty” Schiff, so I wouldn’t e xpect too m uch!” Schiff tweeted i n response: “Mr. President, you are wrong. As usu- al. To day’s briefing for all House Members focuses on the threat of foreign interference in our election. The briefers are agency heads and senior officials. They are your own people. We w ill insist on the truth, whether y ou like it or not.” Grenell, who lacks substantive intelligence community experi- ence, has been one of Trump’s most vocal and partisan backers. Even before he took the ambassador position, he cast doubt on the idea of Russian i nterference in the 2016 election. In an opinion article for Fox News, he played down the severity of the threat, saying “Russian or Russian-approved ta ctics like cyber warfare and campaign of misinformation h ave been happening for decades.” Tuesday’s briefing is part of a regular series to keep lawmakers apprised of the government’s progress in securing federal elections and on f oreign interference. [email protected] [email protected]

BY ELLEN NAKASHIMA

A congressionally mandated commission has proposed a set of recommendations to strengthen the nation’s cyberdefenses against foreign adversaries — and it would like to see them carried out before a cyber-catas- trophe forces change. The commission’s proposed framework of “layered” deter- rence, issued in a report Wednes- day, reflects many ideas floated in the past, but what’s significant is that a number are already in or are close to being included in actual legislation, the members said. “The problem is more urgent than it’s ever been, and people are getting that,” s aid Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), co-chairman of the Cyberspace Solarium Com- mission, which is modeled after an Eisenhower-era project to de- vise a strategic response to Soviet expansionism. “There’s a heightened level of understanding of the danger.” The idea is to have a report with the impact of the 9/11 Com- mission — the independent, bi- partisan panel established after the Sept. 1 1, 2001, attacks — before a “cyber 9 /11” happens, said Rep. Mike Gallagher (R- Wis.), the other co-chairman. One key proposal is to create a national cyber-director in the White House. That official, a Senate-confirmed position, would report to the president and have dozens of staff members and a budget — unlike past “cyber czars” who had a title, but no formal authority or independent budget. A nother proposal is to estab- lish a permanent select committee on cybersecurity modeled after the congressional intelligence committees, which grew out of the Church Committee hearings in the 197 0s to curb intelligence agency abuses. Each idea is likely to meet some opposition from members of Congress or the White House. Lawmakers on existing oversight committees, such as Homeland Security and Armed Services, might balk at l osing some of their jurisdiction. The national security adviser probably would op- pose s uch a proposal, fearing that it could undermine his authority and influence, according to a commission official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be candid. But it is important to lay down a marker, King and Gallagher said. Moreover, four commission members who support the proposals serve on key committees. King sits on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence panels; Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) also sits on the Intelligence Committee; and Gallagher and Rep. Jim Lan- gevin (D-R.I.) serve on their chamber’s Armed Services panel. Langevin is also on the House Homeland Security Committee. “I just believe deeply that hav- ing someone who gets up every morning whose job it is to think about this, organize it, knows what’s going on all over the federal government, is what’s going to make things change,’’ King said of the proposal to create a national cyber-director. The position would be analogous to the U.S. trade representative, an official with clout, he said. A major cyberattack causing death and destruction has been routinely predicted for more

than 2 0 years, yet has never occurred. At the same time, the United States and Western allies have been victims of numerous incursions that, while often bra- zen, fall short of acts of war. Such assaults include North Korea hacking Sony Pictures, re- leasing embarrassing internal emails and effectively destroying the company’s computers; Russia hacking Democratic Party emails and dumping them online to sow confusion in the 2016 presiden- tial election; and China stealing massive amounts of intellectual property from U.S. companies. An effective strategy should take into account the true nature of the threat and the reasons a particular adversary conducts a cyberattack, said James A. Lewis, senior vice president at the Cen- ter for Strategic and Internation- al Studies. “Understanding why a disas- trous cyberattack has never hap- pened and how our opponents think is essential for developing an effective response,” said Lew- is, who co-authored a 2008 cybersecurity report for the incom- ing Obama administration.

Former White House cybersecurity coordinator Michael Dan- iel called the report “well-con- structed, coherent a nd thorough” and said that although many of the ideas are not new, that “doesn’t mean they are not the right way to go about it.” Daniel, who left office in Janu- ary 2017 and helped refine the commission’s recommendations, supports the proposals for a cyber-director position and a new oversight committee, which would consolidate duties now shared by a range of panels. “Unlike the executive branch,” he noted, Congress “has not done much reorganizing to deal with cyber” c hallenges. Another recommendation that could have significant impact is to bolster the State Department’s role in cybersecurity by elevating the top cyber position there, creating an assistant secretary in charge of a new Bureau of Cyber- space Security and Emerging Te chnologies. That would give the United States more leverage in its effort to, as the commission report states, “develop and rein- force international norms” in cyberspace. Other notable proposals include investing more resources in the Homeland Security De- partment’s Cybersecurity and In- frastructure Agency; creating a certification authority to serve as an “Underwriters’ Laboratory” that would indicate that a prod- uct has met security standards; and requiring publicly traded companies to demonstrate to the Securities and Exchange Com- mission that they have conduct- ed cyber risk assessments that include penetration-testing. The executive branch is re- quired to submit a response within 60 days of the report’s submission to Congress, which will take place at a hearing at the end of March. [email protected]

Commission urges

actions to bolster

U.S. cyberdefenses

Proposals include a more powerful White House cyber-czar

“The problem is more

urgent than it’s ever

been.... There’s a

heightened level of

understanding of the

danger.” sen. Angus King (i-Maine), co-chairman of the Cyberspace solarium Commission

BY ELLEN NAKASHIMA AND SEUNG MIN KIM

A senior U.S. intelligence offi-
cial told Congress on Tuesday that
the intelligence community does
not as yet have evidence that Rus-
sia is interfering in the 2020 elec-
tion to benefit a particular candi-
date, according to four officials
familiar with the closed briefings
in the House and Senate.
The head of national counterin-
telligence, William Evanina, ap-
peared to be tempering an assess-
ment delivered to lawmakers in
the House last month that Russia
had developed a “preference” f or
President Trump — an assessment
that angered the president when
he was told that it had been given
to lawmakers, said the officials,
who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because the sessions
were classified.
Evanina told senators that the
Russians “continue to be broadly
engaged in social media activities
designed to divide us further, to
discredit our electoral system and
to disrupt our election,” said one
official present at t he all-members
meeting.
In the Senate, Evanina’s care-
fully worded answer came in re-
sponse to the first question asked
— by Majority Leader Mitch Mc-
Connell (Ky.) — and “felt orches-
trated,” s aid a second official, who
was briefed on the m eeting. “Both
question and r esponse were clear-
ly pre-drafted.”
The intelligence officials who
gave the briefing, including Na-
tional Security Agency Director
Paul M. Nakasone and FBI Direc-
tor Christopher A. Wray, did not
give senators an impression that
the Trump administration has a
solid grip on dealing with foreign
interference in the coming elec-
tion, said a third official briefed on
the session.
Senators “came out of it with-
out a true s ense that this adminis-
tration has a handle on this and
we’re going to be okay for 2020,”
the official said.
In the House, Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-Calif.) a nd Rep. Adam B.
Schiff (D-Calif.), the Intelligence
Committee chairman, challenged
the briefer o n what struck them as
an effort to play down the assess-
ment given last month by Shelby
Pierson, the intelligence commu-
nity’s point person on foreign elec-
tion t hreats, a fourth official said.

Officials: No proof of Russian meddling

andrew Caballero-reynolds/assoCIaTed Press Acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell, left, declined to appear at a Senate briefing on Tuesday about Russia and the election. He is said to have cited apprehension about his preparedness.

Intelligence community hasn’t found evidence of a 2 020 election favorite

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The Washington Post - 11.03.2020

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