The New York Times - USA (2020-06-25)

A16 N THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONALTHURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2020

The 45th PresidentThe Agenda

WASHINGTON — The Senate
Intelligence Committee on
Wednesday sharply questioned
the Trump administration’s nomi-
nee to be the C.I.A.’s inspector
general, amid concern that the
White House’s purge of govern-
ment watchdogs has threatened
their ability to function independ-
ently.
In normal times, the nomina-
tion of a conservative white shoe
lawyer to be the government
watchdog for the nation’s top spy
agency would be a dull, pro forma
affair. But both the administra-
tion’s moves to oust various in-
spectors general and the partisan
division over a C.I.A. officer’s
whistle-blower complaint that led
to President Trump’s impeach-
ment loomed over the nomination
of Peter M. Thomson to become
the spy agency’s government
watchdog.
The job has been open for more
than five years, since David Buck-
ley stepped down from the posi-
tion near the end of the Obama ad-
ministration. Mr. Trump’s first
pick for the post languished in the
Republican-controlled Senate.
In April, the Trump administra-
tion nominated Mr. Thomson, a
lawyer from New Orleans who
told lawmakers on Wednesday
that he would not be bullied or suc-

cumb to any pressure, real or per-

ceived.

“Independence, in my view,

means the work of the inspector

general must be performed in an

unbiased or impartial manner,

free of undue or inappropriate in-

fluences,” he said.

But his attempt to dodge ques-

tions about Mr. Trump’s attacks on

the intelligence community and

his assertion that he did not have

all the facts about the handling of

the whistle-blower complaint

about Mr. Trump’s dealings with

Ukraine drew a sharp rebuke by

Senator Angus King, independent

of Maine.

“You are not helping yourself by

obfuscating and avoiding these

questions,” Mr. King said.

The whistle-blower could have

gone to the C.I.A. inspector gener-

al’s office, even though the post

was vacant, but chose instead to

go to Michael K. Atkinson, the in-

telligence community inspector

general at the time. Mr. Atkinson,

against the advice of the Justice

Department, informed Congress

about the complaint, touching off

a fight between the House Intelli-

gence Committee and the White

House. Mr. Trump fired Mr. Atkin-

son in April.

Mr. King, who usually votes

with the Democrats, chastised Mr.

Thomson for not directly answer-

ing a question from Senator Susan

Collins, Republican of Maine,

about whether the Ukraine whis-

tle-blower complaint should have

gone to Congress.

“Don’t tell me you don’t know all

the facts,” Mr. King said. “We

know the essential facts, you

know what the complaint was.

Should that have been forwarded

to Congress? Yes or no?”

While Mr. Thomson again

sidestepped the question, Senator

Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkan-

sas, stepped in to say the com-

plaint should not have been sent

to Capitol Hill.

While Mr. Cotton took a strong

stand against informing Con-

gress, most committee members

of both parties used their ques-

tions to get Mr. Thomson to pledge

to inform Congress about intelli-

gence investigations he was con-

ducting.

Senator Marco Rubio, the Flor-

ida Republican who leads the

committee, made Mr. Thomson

promise he would inform the Sen-

ate of any “significant com-

plaints” his office received.

“We will ask difficult and prob-

ing questions of you and your

staff, and we will expect honest,

complete and timely answers,”

Mr. Rubio said.

Mr. Thomson’s confirmation,

for now, appears likely. The Re-

publicans who control the com-

mittee were supportive of his can-

didacy, and Mr. Rubio said he

wanted to move quickly to a vote.

But the questions over the

Trump administration’s treat-

ment of government watchdogs

remain.

In addition to firing Mr. Atkin-

son, the administration has re-

moved the State Department in-

spector general and ousted the

acting Pentagon inspector gen-

eral who was overseeing coro-

navirus relief funds, leading to

broad concerns about oversight of

the executive branch. The admin-

istration has also over the past

year fired a string of senior intelli-

gence officials, adding to the con-

cerns in the Senate, particularly

among Democrats.

The independence of the Trump

administration’s inspectors gen-

eral “is under grave threat,” said

Senator Mark Warner, the Virgin-

ia Democrat who serves as the

vice chairman of the Intelligence

Committee.

“We have seen the president at-

tack without justification the

brave women and men of the intel-

ligence community, simply be-

cause they were doing what all

Americans expected of them:

telling truth to power,” Mr. Warner

said. “This is because for this

president, the truth is very often

unwelcome.”

Mr. Thomson is a defense law-

yer at the New Orleans law firm

Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann.

He spent much of his career as a

federal prosecutor. While a serv-

ing as an assistant United States

attorney, he was detailed, for a

time, to the National Security

Agency, where he provided legal

advice related to signals intelli-

gence.

Mr. Trump’s first choice for the

post, Christopher R. Sharpley,

quit as acting inspector general in

2018 after he did not get a vote in

the Senate over his handling of

whistle-blower complaints from

former C.I.A. employees.

Senators Press C.I.A. Watchdog Nominee on Whether He Can Work Independently

Peter M. Thomson, a defense lawyer and former federal prosecu-

tor, has been nominated to be the C.I.A.’s inspector general.

TOM WILLIAMS/CQ-ROLL CALL, VIA GETTY IMAGES

By JULIAN E. BARNES

A job gains new

importance amid a

purge in Washington.

The Senate on Wednesday con-
firmed Cory T. Wilson of Missis-
sippi to a New Orleans-based cir-
cuit court over united Democratic
opposition, handing President
Trump the 200th federal judicial
confirmation of his tenure and
achieving a Republican goal of fill-
ing every appeals court opening
by the end of the year.
In winning Senate approval,
Judge Wilson, a conservative
state court judge and former Mis-
sissippi legislator, became the
53rd federal appeals court judge
installed by Mr. Trump and ce-
mented a milestone in a judicial
legacy that has reshaped the fed-
eral courts during his administra-
tion, including putting in place two
Supreme Court justices. Republi-
cans lauded the achievement. The
vote was 52-48.
“This will be a historic moment
for this body and for the adminis-
tration,” said Senator Roger
Wicker, Republican of Mississippi,
a strong supporter of Judge Wil-

son. The Senate’s confirmation of

200 judges since 2017, he said, is

the highest total in a president’s

first term since President Jimmy

Carter.

“The seat we are voting to fill is

actually the last remaining circuit

court vacancy at this time, reflect-

ing the remarkable progress we

have made in rebuilding the fed-

eral judiciary,” Mr. Wicker added.

Under Senator Mitch McCon-

nell, Republican of Kentucky and

the majority leader, Senate Re-

publicans have prioritized con-

firming conservative judges over

considering legislation in the

sharply divided chamber, since

nominations can be advanced

with no support from minority

Democrats.

Mr. McConnell even adopted an

informal slogan to characterize

the effort: Leave no vacancy be-

hind. This year, Republicans have

stepped up their efforts to confirm

as many of Mr. Trump’s judicial

nominees as possible before No-

vember, when the president could

lose re-election or they could lose

their Senate majority, eliminating

their iron grip on the confirmation

process.

“Following Number 200, when

we depart this chamber today,

there will not be a single circuit

court vacancy anywhere in the

nation for the first time in at least

40 years,” Mr. McConnell said on

Wednesday, repeating the statis-

tic for emphasis. “It’s a victory for

the rule of law and for the Consti-

tution itself.”

Mr. McConnell’s staff lost little

time in declaring the achievement

a victory for him as well, quickly

posting a glossy video on Twitter

celebrating the “new milestone in

reshaping the courts,” underscor-

ing that the majority leader con-

siders his impact on the courts to

be his crowning achievement.

Before the vote, Democrats un-

successfully called on Mr. McCon-

nell to pull the nomination from

the floor, saying that Judge Wilson

was a shameful choice at the cur-

rent moment because of his

record on voting rights, among

other objections.

“Judge Wilson has been an ar-

dent supporter of restrictive vot-

ing measures, including voter ID

laws, that disproportionately

harm minority voters, and he has

shown a pattern of dismissing le-

gitimate concerns from voting

rights groups,” Senators Chuck

Schumer of New York, Dianne

Feinstein of California and Amy

Klobuchar of Minnesota, wrote to

Mr. McConnell.

“Appointing someone to the

Fifth Circuit who refers to the con-

cerns of African-American citi-

zens and community advocates

regarding the effects of voter ID

laws as ‘poppycock’ is a slap in the

face to black Americans at a time

when our country is working to

take steps forward on racial jus-

tice, not backwards,” the Demo-

crats wrote.

Democrats also faulted Judge

Wilson for his opposition to the Af-

fordable Care Act, saying he and

another appeals court judge con-

firmed last week, Judge Justin

Walker of Kentucky, were being

placed on the courts to help unrav-

el the law.

But a series of changes to Sen-

ate rules since 2013 have essen-

tially eliminated the ability of the

minority to hold up judicial nomi-

nations, a significant factor in em-

powering Republicans to push

through hundreds of new federal

judges despite deep Democratic

opposition to most of them.

Republicans purposefully fo-

cused on the appeals courts, say-

ing that most of the major, binding

court rulings occur at that level

since the Supreme Court hears a

relatively small number of cases.

Carl W. Tobias, a law professor

at the University of Richmond

School of Law, said it was the first

time since the Reagan administra-

tion that there were no vacancies

among the 179 appellate judge-

ships authorized by Congress. He

noted that the aggressive push by

the Trump White House and Sen-

ate Republicans had shifted the

makeup of three circuits from a

majority of judges nominated by

Democrats to a majority nomi-

nated by Republicans. The effort

had also added to the existing ma-

jority of Republican-nominated

judges on other circuits and in-

creased conservative representa-

tion on the liberal Ninth Circuit on

the West Coast, he said.

It is possible that more vacan-

cies could still occur this year, and

Republicans have indicated they

would move to fill them despite an

informal tradition of suspending

judicial confirmations late in an

election year.

More than 70 Federal District

Court vacancies remain. The pace

of filling them has moved more

slowly because home-state Demo-

crats still have influence over

those choices, complicating ef-

forts by the Trump administration

to win swift confirmation of their

preferred candidates.

In Milestone for Trump,

G.O.P. Fills Last Vacancy

On Circuit Court Benches

By CARL HULSE

In a 52-48 vote, the Senate confirmed Judge Cory T. Wilson of

Mississippi to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

TOM WILLIAMS/CQ-ROLL CALL, VIA GETTY IMAGES

Mayor Bill de Blasio and other
top officials warned on Wednes-
day that the coronavirus pan-
demic was putting tremendous
stress on the finances of govern-
ment in New York City, raising the
prospect that they might have to
carry out cuts in infrastructure
spending and some of the most
sweeping layoffs of municipal
workers in decades.
The bleak financial picture
threatens to hamper New York’s
recovery even as it emerges from
a brutal lockdown that shut down
businesses and brought the city to
a virtual halt for three months af-
ter it became the epicenter of the
U.S. pandemic.
The alarms from New York offi-
cials reflect a broader political
strategy — threatening deep cuts
as part of their effort to pressure
Washington to provide more as-
sistance. And New York City’s
predicament speaks to the dire fis-
cal situation of states and local-
ities across the nation.
With the coronavirus siphoning
as much as $9 billion in tax reve-
nue from New York City, Mr. de
Blasio said on Wednesday that the
city might have to lay off or fur-
lough 22,000 municipal workers
this fall.
“We are running out of options
here,” the mayor said. “That is the
blunt truth.”
The same morning, the state-
run transit agency announced
that it would suspend its much-
heralded $54 billion plan to mod-
ernize the city’s antiquated trans-
portation system.
The move came as the Metro-
politan Transportation Authority,
which oversees the city’s subway
and buses, pushed for $3.9 billion
in federal emergency funds to
help the agency survive the crisis.
“To be clear, this is a four-alarm
fire,” said Patrick J. Foye, chair-
man of the M.T.A., on Wednesday.
“We are facing the most acute fi-
nancial crisis in the history of the

M.T.A.”

Mr. de Blasio described the lay-

offs and furloughs as a potentially

necessary move in light of sub-

stantial budgetary shortfalls

brought about by the pandemic’s

steep reduction in business activi-

ty.

As the pandemic has continued

to paralyze New York’s economy,

the administration’s estimates of

its own budget shortfalls have

continued to rise, forcing the city

to plan for spending cuts in nu-

merous areas. The mayor said the

administration was now looking

for another $1 billion in savings.

Mr. de Blasio said he was talk-

ing with municipal labor unions in

the hope of finding savings that

would forestall layoffs from a city

work force that numbered 326,

by the end of 2019, according to

the Citizens Budget Commission.

That includes an expansion of

nearly 30,000 during Mr. de Bla-

sio’s administration, said Andrew

Rein, the commission’s president.

Mr. Rein noted that Mr. de Bla-

sio will have to grapple with even

more significant budget shortfalls

in future years, even if he does

find $1 billion in labor savings. He

also argued that the city could find

labor savings in ways that do not

entail layoffs, including by operat-

ing more efficiently and consoli-

dating union welfare funds.

The city hasn’t seen layoffs

since 2012, when City Hall laid off

fewer than 1,000 employees, the

commission said.

When the city was on the brink

of insolvency in the 1970s, its work

force declined by 20 percent, or

45,000 full-time employees, over

three years, according to the com-

mission.

Harry Nespoli was laid off from

his job at the Sanitation Depart-

ment in 1975. Now he leads the

Municipal Labor Committee, a co-

alition of about 110 city unions.

He has been in talks with City

Hall for more than a month to find

savings and said the timing of Mr.

de Blasio’s announcement on

Wednesday was unhelpful.

“What performance does the

mayor expect to get from his work

force now?” Mr. Nespoli said.

While criminal justice advo-

cates have called for a $1 billion

cut to the New York Police Depart-

ment’s budget, they would like to

see that funding distributed else-

where, not eliminated from the

budget entirely.

“We’re often told we can only

get jobs or justice,” said Antho-

nine Pierre, deputy director of the

Brooklyn Movement Center, via

text. “The hard work of the mayor

is to figure out how to provide

both.”

Mr. de Blasio has sought au-

thority from Albany to take on

debt for operating costs, though

state legislators have seemed re-

luctant to grant it. Some inter-

preted his announcement as a

means by which to exert leverage

on Albany legislators to take ac-

tion.

On Wednesday, the mayor sug-

gested that it would be foolish to

hold out for further relief from

Washington lawmakers.

“For weeks and weeks, we all

had the hope that there would be a

federal stimulus plan by now,” Mr.

de Blasio said. “It’s quite clear

that’s not happening.”

The M.T.A.’s sweeping capital

program, the largest in the transit

agency’s history, was hailed as a

much-needed transformation of

the century-old system after

years of disinvestment had

plunged it into disrepair.

It includes installing modern

subway signals, purchasing more

than 1,900 new subway cars and

500 electric buses and adding ele-

vators to 70 stations across the

vastly inaccessible subway sys-

tem.

But after revenue used to keep

the system running from fares,

tolls and dedicated taxes vanished

almost overnight because of the

pandemic, the future of the project

was thrown into uncertainty.

“The simple fact is that the capi-

tal program of the M.T.A. is frozen

because of uncertainty about how

much money is going to be avail-

able,” said Janno Lieber, head of

the authority’s capital construc-

tion. The suspension of the plan

was first reported by The City.

At the same time, the agency’s

plan to carry out the country’s

first congestion pricing plan —

which would charge people driv-

ing into the busiest parts of Man-

hattan — has stalled in the face of

federal inaction on environmental

review guidance. The revenue

from that proposal was supposed

to support the M.T.A.’s moderniza-

tion plan, too.

In March, the authority re-

ceived a nearly $4 billion federal

bailout to cover initial revenue

loss, and transit officials have lob-

bied for an additional $3.9 billion

in emergency federal funds. The

agency projects that it is facing a

$10 billion deficit over the next

two years.

On Wednesday, transit officials

said that they are also considering

job cuts, service reductions, and

fare and toll increases in order to

weather the financial crisis in the

years to come.

As a stopgap measure to ensure

trains continued to run, New York

lawmakers allowed the M.T.A. to

borrow money to pay for operat-

ing costs — an option Albany

seems unwilling to offer City Hall.

Albany has also allowed the

M.T.A. to use funds it had set aside

for system modernization for op-

erating expenses. So far, the au-

thority has not dipped into that

funding, which would total around

$950 million. But shelving the cap-

ital program indefinitely suggests

that transit officials plan to do so if

the agency does not receive an-

other federal bailout.

“This is not hyperbole: The

M.T.A.’s projected losses are cata-

strophic,” said Rachael Fauss, a

senior research analyst at Re-

invent Albany, a watchdog group.

“Without federal funding, they

have to resort to options that in-

clude opening the capital lock-

box.”

Delays to already overdue up-

grades outlined in the capital pro-

gram risk eroding service over

the long term. Years of disinvest-

ment after the 2008 recession

plunged the system into such dis-

repair that Gov. Andrew M.

Cuomo declared it to be in a state

of emergency in 2017.

“Momentary cuts in invest-

ments — especially in an old sys-

tem that needs state of good re-

pair investment — have dramatic

long-term consequences,” Mr.

Lieber said.

Over the last four years, sub-

way service has improved. But if

the system slips back into decay, it

could hamper the M.T.A.’s ability

to lure back riders as the city re-

awakens and could hurt the re-

gion’s economic recovery.

“The future of New York hinges

on the subway, and the future of

the nation hinges on New York,”

said Danny Pearlstein, a spokes-

man for the Riders Alliance, a

grass-roots organization.

New York City, ‘Running Out of Options,’

Could Lay Off 22,000, de Blasio Warns

By DANA RUBINSTEIN

and CHRISTINA GOLDBAUM

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the pandemic may deplete New York’s tax revenue by up to $9 billion.

BRYAN R. SMITH/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

The M.T.A. pauses its

capital plan, citing a

fiscal ‘four-alarm fire.’