The New York Times - USA (2020-08-06)

A20 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONALTHURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2020

FRONT PAGE

Because of an editing error, an

article on Wednesday about

plasma infusions as a coronavirus

treatment misstated the network

that runs “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” It

is Fox Business Network, not Fox

News.

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK

An article on Wednesday about

discoveries made by scientists by

studying the worst cases of coro-

navirus misstated the name of a

scientific journal that published a

recent study. It was Nature, not

Nature Medicine.

INTERNATIONAL

An article on Tuesday about

Turkey’s aggressive foreign policy

referred incorrectly to part of the

remarks made by Amanda Sloat,

a former State Department offi-

cial. Ms. Sloat said the European

Union had no clear policy on

Turkey or Libya. While the United

Nations lacks a policy on compet-

ing claims for drilling rights in the

Eastern Mediterranean, Ms. Sloat

said, she did not say the U.N. had

no policy on the countries as a

whole.

NATIONAL

An article on Wednesday about

state primary results announced

this week misstated the winner of

a Missouri House race. Cori Bush

defeated William Lacy Clay Jr.,

not the reverse.

An article on Wednesday about a

ruling by a federal appeals court

that blocked the Trump adminis-

tration’s efforts to deny perma-

nent residency to legal immi-

grants misidentified the judge

who affirmed the ruling and

misstated the timing of his deci-

sion. It was affirmed by a Man-

hattan judge in 2019, not by Judge

George P. Daniels of the U.S.

District Court in Manhattan last

week.

BUSINESS

A picture with an article on

Wednesday about BP’s $16.

billion quarterly loss, relying on

information from Reuters,

misidentified a BP site in Cam-

bridgeshire, Britain. The image

was of a ground-mounted Light-

source BP site, not a floating

installation at the Queen Eliza-

beth II Reservoir.

ARTS

An article on Wednesday about

Sotheby’s 2019 art sales mis-

spelled the surname of the chief

executive of Pi-eX. She is Chris-

tine Bourron, not Bouron.

SCIENCE TIMES

An article on Tuesday about the

effect of the global response to the

coronavirus on the prevalence of

diseases other than Covid-

referred imprecisely to the region

where 90 percent of annual ma-

laria deaths occur. They occur

across sub-Saharan Africa, not

only in West Africa.

OBITUARIES

An obituary on July 27 about the

actress Olivia de Havilland, one of

the stars of “Gone With the

Wind,” referred incorrectly to the

production of that movie. It was

produced by Selznick Interna-

tional Pictures and distributed by

MGM; it was not an “MGM pro-

duction.” The obituary also mis-

stated the cause of the death of

Ms. de Havilland’s son, Benjamin

Goodrich. It was heart disease,

not Hodgkin’s disease.

An obituary on Monday about the

actor Wilford Brimley described

incorrectly the character he

played in the movie “Absence of

Malice.” He was an assistant U.S.

attorney, not a district attorney.

The obituary also referred incor-

rectly in part to Mr. Brimley’s

musical talents. While he was an

accomplished singer, he was not

known to play the guitar.

An obituary on Tuesday about the

pianist Leon Fleisher misstated

the year he had planned to tour

the Soviet Union with the Cleve-

land Orchestra before bowing out.

It was 1965, not 1964.

Errors are corrected during the press

run whenever possible, so some errors

noted here may not have appeared in

all editions.

Corrections

WASHINGTON — The State
Department’s acting watchdog
has resigned from his post less
than three months after replacing
the previous inspector general,
whom President Trump fired in
May, the department said on
Wednesday.
The departure of the acting in-
spector general, Stephen J. Akard,
came as Congress continued to in-
vestigate the firing of his prede-
cessor, Steve A. Linick, who was
pursuing inquiries into Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo. Three con-
gressional committees issued
subpoenas this week to top aides
of Mr. Pompeo.
Mr. Linick had opened investi-
gations into Mr. Pompeo’s poten-
tial misuse of department re-
sources and his effort to push
arms sales to Saudi Arabia and
the United Arab Emirates.
The department gave no expla-
nation for the departure of Mr.
Akard, an ally of Vice President
Mike Pence. A department
spokeswoman said Mr. Akard,
who is from Indiana, would be “re-
turning to the private sector,” and
the deputy inspector general, Di-
ana R. Shaw, would take over as
acting inspector general.
Mr. Akard “left to go back
home,” Mr. Pompeo said at a news
conference on Wednesday. “This
happens. I don’t have anything
more to add to that.”
The departure is yet another
disruption to the State Depart-
ment’s internal watchdog office,
where hundreds of employees in-
vestigate fraud and waste.
Mr. Akard took over the acting
inspector general role after Mr.
Linick, who was appointed to the
post by President Barack Obama
in 2013, was fired by Mr. Trump in
mid-May at the private urging of
Mr. Pompeo. Mr. Linick was
known to be cautious and nonpar-
tisan.
The events surrounding Mr.
Linick’s removal have come under
intense scrutiny. Three congres-
sional committees are investigat-
ing Mr. Pompeo’s role in the
events. Mr. Pompeo has said Mr.
Linick was “undermining” the
work of the State Department,
though he has given no details.
On Monday, lawmakers sub-
poenaed four State Department
officials to further their investiga-
tion.
Two of the aides, Brian Bulatao
and Toni Porter, are longtime
close friends of Mr. Pompeo and
his wife, Susan. They were ap-
pointed to senior roles by Mr.
Pompeo at both the State Depart-
ment and the C.I.A., where Mr.
Pompeo served as the director for
one year.

The other two are Marik String,

the agency’s acting legal adviser,

and Michael Miller, the deputy as-

sistant secretary of state for politi-

cal and military affairs. Lawmak-

ers and aides intend to question

them about their actions and

those of Mr. Pompeo in pushing

through the arms sales, as well as

Mr. Linick’s inquiry into the issue.

“The administration continues

to cover up the real reasons for Mr.

Linick’s firing by stonewalling the

committees’ investigation and re-

fusing to engage in good faith,”

Democratic leaders of the com-

mittees wrote on Monday. “That

stonewalling has made today’s

subpoenas necessary.”

Mr. Akard’s appointment as act-

ing inspector general was met

with skepticism. It prompted crit-

ics to wonder if it was an effort to

politicize an office meant to be an

independent internal unit.

In addition to serving as the

State Department’s acting watch-

dog, Mr. Akard was also the agen-

cy’s ambassador-level head of the

Office of Foreign Missions, an ar-

rangement that was a clear con-

flict of interest and widely criti-

cized by Democratic lawmakers.

Mr. Akard worked as the chief of

staff of the Indiana Economic De-

velopment Corporation when Mr.

Pence was the governor of the

state.

After taking on the acting

watchdog role at the State Depart-

ment, Mr. Akard told officials

there that he would recuse himself

from the ongoing inquiries into

Mr. Pompeo and his wife’s poten-

tial misuse of government re-

sources and into the arm sales. He

also pledged to recuse himself

from any inquiry involving the of-

fice he oversaw, according to a let-

ter he sent to House lawmakers in

June.

The office was also investigat-

ing Robert Wood Johnson IV, the

United States ambassador to Brit-

ain and a close ally of Mr. Trump,

over accusations that he had

made racist and sexist remarks to

embassy staff.

Senator Bob Menendez of New

Jersey, the lead Democrat on the

Foreign Relations Committee, ex-

pressed concern after hearing of

Mr. Akard’s resignation, which

was first reported by The Wash-

ington Post and CNN.

“Independent, experienced in-

spectors general are paramount

to effective oversight,” Mr. Me-

nendez said in a statement. “I do

not believe he was the right choice

to lead the office, but I am con-

cerned that his sudden resigna-

tion leaves another opportunity

for the Trump administration to

try to weaken oversight and ac-

countability.”

Representatives Eliot L. Engel

and Carolyn B. Maloney, both

Democrats of New York who are

leading the two House commit-

tees investigating the Linick fir-

ing, said in a joint statement that

Mr. Akard’s resignation “must not

further disrupt the Office of In-

spector General’s important in-

vestigations. Any effort by the

Trump administration to install

another political loyalist would

further undercut the ability of the

office to properly carry out its crit-

ical mission.”

Critics have said that Mr. Pom-

peo urged Mr. Trump to fire Mr.

Linick out of retribution and to

evade accountability.

Mr. Pompeo has admitted that

he knew about at least one of Mr.

Linick’s investigations, a nearly

completed inquiry into whether

Mr. Pompeo had acted unlawfully

in bypassing Congress to push

through $8.1 billion of arms sales

to Saudi Arabia and the United

Arab Emirates last year. During a

review process, senior lawmakers

from both parties had put a freeze

on the sales, but Mr. Pompeo de-

clared an “emergency” in May

2019 to do an end run around the

congressional hold, citing Iran’s

actions in the Middle East as justi-

fication. Lawmakers asked Mr.

Linick the next month to open an

investigation into the legality of

Mr. Pompeo’s action.

This June, Mr. Linick testified in

Congress that Mr. Bulatao, the un-

der secretary of state for manage-

ment, tried to “bully” him as he

conducted his examination into

the potentially illegal action.

Aides to Mr. Linick briefed a

handful of State Department offi-

cials on the report’s preliminary

findings in early March, and offi-

cials there and in Congress expect

the report to be issued. It is un-

clear what role Mr. Akard has

played in the investigation since

he replaced Mr. Linick in May.

Arms sales to Saudi Arabia and

the United Arab Emirates, which

are accused of vast human rights

violations and helping kill thou-

sands of civilians in the Yemeni

civil war, have been one of the big-

gest points of contention between

the Trump administration and

Congress.

Mr. Trump and aides in the

White House have been strong

proponents of the sales. Frus-

trated that lawmakers continue to

put holds on proposed sales, sen-

ior administration officials are

considering trying to end the dec-

ades-old congressional informal

review process.

The three congressional com-

mittees investigating Mr. Linick’s

firing said on Monday that the vol-

untary testimony last week of

Charles Faulkner, a former State

Department official and arms-in-

dustry lobbyist, revealed that a

small group of senior State De-

partment officials had been “de-

termined to ignore legitimate hu-

manitarian concerns among their

ranks and on Capitol Hill” to push

through the arms sales last year.

Mr. Pompeo has dismissed ac-

cusations at the center of the in-

quiry into his potential abuse of

government resources and tax-

payer funds, which include a pos-

sible misuse of a political appoint-

ee’s time to perform personal and

political tasks for him and his wife.

A congressional aide said that in-

quiry involved accusations that

the Pompeos had asked the State

Department employee to pick up

dry cleaning, make restaurant

reservations and walk the family

dog, Sherman. People familiar

with the inquiry said Ms. Porter,

whose title is senior adviser to the

secretary, was the political ap-

pointee.

Ms. Porter has a wide-ranging

portfolio at the agency. She com-

pletes tasks for Ms. Pompeo, who

is a volunteer, and helps arrange

domestic travel for the Pompeos

— which has involved secretive

meetings with Republican donors

and political figures. Ms. Porter

also helped Ms. Pompeo organize

about two dozen lavish “Madison

Dinners,” in which business exec-

utives, donors and politicians,

most of them Republicans or con-

servatives, were invited to dine in

the State Department at taxpayer

expense.

State Dept. Loses Second Inspector General Amid a Flurry of Inquiries

The inspector general’s office is looking into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s role in arms sales and his family’s use of resources.

POOL PHOTO BY GREG NASH

By PRANSHU VERMA

and EDWARD WONG

A new appointee was

in office less than

three months.

Contact the Newsroom

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WASHINGTON — When Vice
President Mike Pence traveled to
an event in Florida on Wednesday,
he was not accompanied on his
plane by a member of the White
House press corps, as is typically
the case.
Instead, seated on Air Force
Two in a space normally reserved
for a White House reporter was
the vice president for communica-
tions at the Heritage Foundation,
a conservative think tank that has
helped the Trump administration
fill jobs throughout the govern-
ment and influenced policy deci-
sions.
The foundation official, Robert
B. Bluey, is also the executive edi-
tor of The Daily Signal, a news site
run by the foundation to offer con-
servative commentary and analy-
sis.
On Wednesday, he joined Mr.
Pence, who spoke at a “Faith in
America” event in Clearwater. Mr.
Bluey filled the role of the pool re-
porter, one of the journalists who
travel with the president or the
vice president, filing reports on
their movements and activities
throughout the day, and providing
the rest of the White House press
corps with a first cut of any news
of the day.
The White House has increas-
ingly nurtured relationships with
conservative news outlets, includ-
ing One America News Network,
an organization that has been
granted special permission to
send a reporter to the briefing
room despite restrictions put in ef-
fect by the White House Corre-
spondents’ Association to keep re-
porters safe during the coro-
navirus pandemic. And the ad-
ministration has long elevated
niche outlets that cover it more fa-
vorably, while the president has
systematically cast doubt on
mainstream news organizations
by referring to them as “fake
news” and the “enemy of the peo-
ple.”
Wednesday was not the first
time someone representing The
Daily Signal served as a pool re-

porter. In 2017, the website’s White

House correspondent, Fred Lu-

cas, was the first journalist from

the organization to participate in

White House pool duties.

But Mr. Bluey, a communica-

tions professional, is not listed as a

reporter, and he does not cover the

White House. In an email on

Wednesday, Mr. Bluey said he

started working in journalism in

1996 and helped create The Daily

Signal in 2014. The site had been

part of the White House Corre-

spondents’ Association since

2016, he said.

“Since our founding, I’ve in-

sisted our reporters maintain

strong editorial standards and

practices to ensure our credibility

as a news outlet,” he said.

When The Washington Post

raised questions in the past about

Mr. Lucas’s participation in pool

duties, given his association with

an ideologically driven think tank,

Mr. Bluey responded at length on-

line, defending his colleague.

There was nothing openly parti-

san about Mr. Bluey’s pool reports

on Wednesday, which consisted

mostly of quotes from Mr. Pence’s

speech and brief observations

about how an enthusiastic crowd

responded.

But how Mr. Bluey ended up on

Air Force Two on Wednesday is as

much a story about covering the

Trump administration during the

pandemic as it is about partisan-

ship in the news media. There is

often a clamor to cover the Trump

show and travel aboard Air Force

One, where the president often

walks to the back of the plane and

sometimes breaks news to the

small group of reporters traveling

with him.

Filling seats to cover Mr. Pence,

who does not make news by de-

sign, is often a tougher sell. And it

has only become more difficult to

find reporters willing to travel

with him when it also means tak-

ing on a greater risk of contracting

the coronavirus.

Multiple members of the White

House press corps who have been

reporting from the White House

or traveling with the president

have tested positive for the virus.

The White House Correspon-

dents’ Association put out a call

for reporters earlier in the week

seeking a volunteer to cover Mr.

Pence’s day trip to Florida as part

of the pool. When the organization

was unable to fill the slot, Mr.

Pence’s office chose the print

pooler instead, according to some-

one familiar with the process. The

correspondents’ association de-

clined to comment.

“The office of the vice president

has been working with local re-

porters and specialty outlets to

ensure that all outlets have the

ability and access to cover the vice

president’s events,” said Katie

Miller, Mr. Pence’s communica-

tions director. She added, “Are you

worried about conservative bias

in the media?”

Think Tank Official Fills Role of Pence Pool Reporter

Vice President Mike Pence departing Air Force Two for an event in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday.

DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD/TAMPA BAY TIMES, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nurturing connections

with conservative

news outlets.

By ANNIE KARNI

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