thursday, february 20 , 2020. the washington post eZ re A
BY MAX BEARAKADDIS ABABA, EthIopIA — Cap-
ping a three-country swing across
Africa, Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo delivered a speech
Wednesday in Ethiopia’s capital
in which he warned African coun-
tries to “be wary of authoritarian
regimes and their empty promis-
es” and said economic partner-
ship with the United States was
the path to “true liberation.”
The secretary’s thinly veiled
barb toward China, by far Africa’s
biggest trading partner for more
than a decade, came as he pitched
American-style capitalism and
economic liberalization as the
only way to move forward after
“failed socialist experiments of
years past” i n numerous African
countries. Pompeo touted invest-
ments by American companies
such as Chevron, Coca-Cola and
Citibank on the visit, which in-
cluded stops in Senegal and Ango-
la as well as Ethiopia.
The trip concluded without an
announcement of any major deal
or new initiative, and it deepened
a sense among African politics
watchers that U.S. policy has
moved away from popular hu-
manitarian programs and broad-
based trade benefits to a near-
singular focus on economic com-
petition with China.
Given the vast gap between
Chinese and American economic
investment in Africa, cuts to
many of those humanitarian pro-
grams and the impending expira-
tion of the U.S. government’s big-
gest trade-benefit program in Af-
rica, the lack of a big-ticket an-
nouncement also seemed to
underline how the Trump admin-
istration has shifted the U.S. gov-
ernment’s Africa policy toward
the rhetorical as opposed to the
tangible.
“The U.S. was and is a strong
partner of Ethiopia,” said Abel
Abate, an analyst at t he Ethiopian
International Institute for Peace
and Development in Addis Ababa.
“But this talk of ‘true liberation’ is
of course highly exaggerated.”
Chinese investment, mostly
driven by state-owned banks and
companies, greatly outweighs
American flows, and millions of
Africans, rich and poor, depend
on the trade in Chinese c ommodi-
ties for a living. Highly visible
infrastructure projects across the
continent are financed by China.
U.S. government investment in
Africa has tended more toward
less flashy sectors such as health
and education, and it totals in the
billions of dollars every year. In
his speech, Pompeo acknowl-
edged a common truism that aid
money is “very unlikely” t o drive
economic growth, but he said the
United States would be with Afri-
ca “every step of the way” in a
process of economic liberaliza-
tion. He particularly emphasized
entrepreneurs — “those people
who are willing to go out and just
crush it every day” — as his hoped-
for beneficiaries of U.S. private
investment.
In public remarks during his
trip, Pompeo chose not to address
China by name in most cases. But
his juxtaposition of American and
Chinese terms o f engagement was
stark and obvious, for the most
part.
“When we come, we hire Ango-
lans,” he said Monday at a meet-
ing of business leaders in Luanda,
the Angolan capital. “When we
come to Angola, we show up with
money that will benefit the Ango-
lan people.... Not every nation
that comes here to invest does
that. There’s no political objec-
tive.”
One recent study on Chinese
companies in Angola found that
more than 70 percent of workers
in construction and manufactur-ing projects were Angolan.
Recent decisions by the Trump
administration have strained re-
lationships with African govern-
ments, such as the imposition of
visa bans on Nigerian, Ta nzanian,
Eritrean and Sudanese travelers,
and the widely expected an-
nouncement of a drawdown of the
U.S. military presence across an
increasingly unstable swath of
West Africa.
President Trump’s trade repre-
sentative, Robert E. Lighthizer,
recently announced the begin-
ning of talks with Kenya on a
free-trade agreement, but that
would be the first in sub-Saharan
Africa, where nearly 40 countries
enjoy special trade benefits that
are set to expire in 2025.
Meanwhile, top-level Chinese
officials regularly travel to Africa,
and nearly every African leader
goes to China for an annual eco-
nomic forum. Side-by-side com-
parison with China is a losing
game for the Trump administra-
tion and one that risks alienating
African leaders who resent the
proposition that they have to
choose sides, said Eric Olander,
director of the China-Africa Proj-
ect.
“The secretary and other senior
U.S. officials need to start deflect-
ing questions about the Chinese
in Africa and instead focus on
their own positive agenda for the
continent if they want to be taken
seriously,” he said.
m [email protected]Promising ‘true liberation,’ Pompeo
contrasts U.S., Chinese roles in Africa
andrew caballero-reynolds/Pool/associated Press
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in Addis Ababa, warned Africa to
“be wary of authoritarian regimes and their empty promises.BY ELISE VIEBECKA Florida law prohibiting ex-
felons who cannot pay certain
legal fines from voting is uncon-
stitutional, a federal appeals
court ruled Wednesday in a case
that could have significant conse-
quences for one of the country’s
largest swing states.
In a unanimous ruling, a three-
judge panel of the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the 11th Circuit af-
firmed a lower court’s finding that
Florida’s S.B. 7066 violates the
Constitution’s guarantee of equal
protection under the law. The
panel also upheld that court’s pre-
liminary injunction barring en-
forcement for the plaintiffs. Flori-
da’s governor immediately sig-
naled that he would appeal the
decision to the full circuit.
The case stems from a state
constitutional amendment ap-
proved by Florida voters in 2018
that restored voting rights to ap-
proximately 1.4 million felons
who completed the terms of their
sentences. Florida’s majority-Re-
publican legislature then passed a
measure requiring felons to pay
all of their “ legal financial obliga-
tions,” such as court fines and
fees, before they qualified to vote.
“The State has chosen to con-
tinue to punish those felons who
are genuinely unable to pay fees,
fines, and restitution on account
of their indigency, while re-en-
franchising all other similarly sit-
uated felons who can afford to
pay,” the judges wrote in their
opinion.
“Continued disenfranchise-
ment is indisputably punitive in
nature,” t he judges wrote, adding,
“Felons who are unable to pay are
subject to continued punishment
solely because of their inability to
pay.”
The ruling on the law, which
some advocates have compared to
a poll tax, was a victory for Demo-
crats and civil r ights groups in one
of this year’s m ost closely watched
legal battles on voting issues. For
Florida — a pivotal battleground
in the presidential election — any
court decisions that expand ac-
cess to the ballot box will have
political consequences when vot-
ers go to the polls in November.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs wel-
comed the appeals court’s deci-
sion while urging state officials to
take steps to allow indigent ex-fel-
ons to join the voting population
this year.Florida’s presidential primary
will take place March 17, and
while the 17 plaintiffs involved in
the suit will be eligible to cast
ballots, other ex-felons with the
same financial status will not.
“The preliminary injunction
applies to our plaintiffs alone,”
Julie Ebenstein, senior staff attor-
ney with the American Civil Lib-
erties Union’s Voting Rights Proj-
ect, said in an interview. “But I
hope the state and the counties
will take note that the Constitu-
tion prohibits the state from dis-
enfranchising somebody for be-
ing poor and unable to pay.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)
indicated Wednesday that he
plans to appeal Wednesday’s rul-
ing to the full 11th Circuit, which
covers Florida, Alabama and
Georgia and is considered one of
the most conservative of the re-
gional appeals courts.
“We disagree with the ruling,”
DeSantis spokeswoman Helen
Aguirre Ferré wrote in an email.
“We are going to seek en banc
review by the full court.”
The three judges who issued
Wednesday’s decision were nomi-
nated to their current positions by
Democrats but are not considered
overwhelmingly liberal.
A two-week trial on the plain-
tiffs’ other claims is scheduled to
begin April 6 before the U.S. Dis-
trict Court for the Northern Dis-
trict of Florida, which issued the
preliminary injunction.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hin-
kle ordered the state to come up
with a system by which ex-felons
could prove they are indigent and
unable to comply with the law’srequirements for voting.
“Florida cannot deny restora-
tion of a felon’s r ight to vote solely
because the felon does not have
the financial resources necessary
to pay restitution,” he wrote.
The state appealed the decision
to the 11th Circuit, prompting
Wednesday’s ruling.
In its opinion, the three-judge
panel said the requirement to pay
outstanding “LFOs,” or legal fi-
nancial obligations, before re-
gaining the right to vote was “irra-
tional” when applied to indigent
ex-felons.
“It is undeniable that the LFO
requirement punishes those who
cannot pay more harshly than
those who can,” t he judges wrote.
“Denying access to the franchise
to those genuinely unable to pay
solely on account of wealth does
not survive heightened scrutiny.”
Ebenstein called the decision
“very exciting for our clients,” not-
ing that some were never eligible
to vote until now.
The ACLU represented plain-
tiffs alongside other groups, in-
cluding the Campaign Legal Cen-
ter, the NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund and the Bren-
nan Center for Justice at the New
York University School of Law.
“It’s really encouraging as far as
the court’s recognition that
wealth is not germane to voting —
that somebody’s eligibility to vote
cannot be dependent on how
much money they have,” Eben-
stein said.
[email protected]robert barnes contributed to this
report.Judges reject Fla. limits on felon vote
Phelan M. ebenhack for the washington Post
Desmond Meade, head of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition,
displays his voter registration form early last year in Orlando.BY PAUL SONNE
AND MISSY RYANPresident Trump dismissed the
Defense Department’s top policy
official, who had clashed with col-
leagues at the White House and
the Pentagon over the implemen-
tation of Trump’s foreign policy
agenda since assuming office
more than two years a go.
Undersecretary of Defense for
Policy John C. Rood, a former top
executive at the defense contrac-
tor Lockheed Martin, said in a
letter to the president that his last
day would be Feb. 28. Rood wrote
that he understood, from speak-
ing to Defense Secretary Mark T.
Esper, that Trump had requested
his resignation.
“I am grateful for the opportu-
nity to serve w ith the many talent-
ed and devoted professionals in
the military and civilian ranks of
the Defense Department,” Rood
wrote. “While much work remains
to be done, I am proud of the m any
accomplishments we have made
instituting and implementing the
National Defense Strategy, which
reshapes U.S. security p riorities.”
Rood was t he t op Pentagon offi-
cial who certified that Ukraine
had sufficiently met its anti-
corruption targets in order to re-
ceive military aid as required by
U.S. law. Trump’s effort to hold
that aid, while his personal attor-
ney demanded Ukraine’s leader
announce investigations into for-
mer vice president Joe Biden and
the Democrats, led to Trump’s im-
peachment b y the H ouse of Repre-
sentatives late last year.
In a n email t o Esper hours after
Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraini-
an President Volodymyr Zelensky,
Rood said that “placing a hold on
security assistance at this time
would jeopardize this u nique w in-
dow of opportunity and under-
mine our defense priorities with a
key partner in the strategic com-
petition with Russia,” CNN r eport-
ed. T he h old proceeded a nyway.
Asked whether Rood’s dismiss-
al was related to his certification
of the Ukraine aid, chief Pentagon
spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoff-
man said, “I have no information
that would lead me to believe
that.”
“The president can make a deci-
sion to go in a different direction,
so I’m not going to speculate on
the motivations,” Hoffman said,
noting that James Anderson, who
is serving as Rood’s deputy on a
temporary basis, would take over
the post until a permanent re-
placement is a ppointed.
Trump tweeted about the deci-
sion Wednesday but didn’t give a
reason for Rood’s dismissal. “I
would like to thank John Rood for
his service to our Country, and
wish him well in his future en-
deavors!” t he president w rote.
Esper said in a statement that
“John has played a critical role on
a w ide r ange of DoD issues i nclud-
ing modernizing our nuclear de-
terrence capability, efforts to in-
crease burden sharing by ourNATO allies, our Missile Defense
Review a nd implementing t he Na-
tional Defense Strategy. I wish
him all the best in his future en-
deavors.”
Despite Rood’s role in the
Ukraine drama, officials at the
White House had been agitating
for his removal for months for
other reasons. O ne former admin-
istration official said Trump re-
cently asked his aides for the
names of people he should get rid
of because they weren’t loyal, and
Rood was m entioned.
Rood served in positions at the
CIA, the S tate D epartment and the
Senate for more than 20 years a nd
had differed with fellow political
appointees, particularly officials
on the White House National Se-
curity Council under former na-
tional security adviser John Bol-
ton.
Several former officials, who
spoke on t he c ondition of a nonym-
ity to discuss a former colleague,
said Rood’s advocacy for p ositions
supported by uniformed officials,
which often contradicted White
House agendas, had repeatedly
created friction with administra-tion leaders.
The officials said Rood was the
subject of White House criticism
for h is role i n the Pentagon’s r eluc-
tance to provide the White House
with plans for a possible with-
drawal of U.S. forces from Syria
before Trump abruptly an-
nounced a pullout in December- Military officials had op-
posed the move because they did
not think the mission against the
Islamic State was finished. Trump
later backed away from his deci-
sion but eventually reduced the
force there.
One former official said Rood
had also angered some at the
White House by opposing the des-
ignation l ast April of Iran’s I slamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps
(IRGC) as a foreign terrorist orga-
nization, another position widely
shared within the military. H e had
also clashed with White House
officials o ver Venezuela policy, t he
former o fficial said.
One of the former officials said
Rood occasionally took t he unusu-
al step of calling the National Se-
curity Council to request changes
to readouts from White House
meetings, i ncluding o ver what the
former o fficial said w as a n inaccu-
rate representation of a Pentagon
position in favor of the IRGC des-
ignation. Rood’s intervention was
first reported by Yahoo News.
Rood also differed with White
House officials over Trump’s de-
sire to ratchet up pressure on Ja-
pan and South Korea to pay more
for U. S. troops stationed there,
according to former o fficials.
Trump’s proposed Syria with-
drawal was met with criticism
from many military officials, as
was a later reallocation of Ameri-
can forces in Syria. The December
2018 a nnouncement, among other
issues, led to the resignation of
then-Defense Secretary Jim Mat-
tis, who had b rought Rood into the
top p olicy j ob.
“Very few Mattis people are left,
which means very few people to
push back,” another former offi-
cial said. “The White House does
not w ant contrary views.”
A spokeswoman f or Rood at t he
Pentagon declined to make him
available for comment.
[email protected]
[email protected]
Josh dawsey contributed to this
report.Trump dismisses Pentagon’s policy
head, who clashed with White House
Rood was the top
Pentagon official who
certified that Ukraine
had sufficiently met its
anti-corruption targets
in order to receive
military aid.
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