The Washington Post - 14.03.2020

A2 eZ sU THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAy, MARCH 14 , 2020

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In CAse YoU mIsseD It

some reports that you may have missed. read more at washingtonpost.com.

Xi visits Wuhan after

coronavirus outbreak

Chinese leader Xi Jinping
went on a carefully
choreographed victory lap
around Wuhan, the epicenter of
the novel coronavirus outbreak,
on Tuesday as the number of new
infections in the country has
plummeted.
washingtonpost.com/world

Feds charge dozens

i n racehorse doping

More than two dozen horse
racing industry employees,
including trainers and
veterinarians, were charged
Monday with participating in “a
widespread, corrupt” scheme to
manufacture, distribute and
administer performance-
enhancing drugs to racehorses,
the latest black eye for the
troubled sport.
washingtonpost.cm/sports

D.C. sniper Malvo

is married in prison

Lee Boyd Malvo, now 35, half
of a two-man sniper team that
terrorized the Washington
region and killed 10 people in
October 2002, was married last
week in a ceremony at Red
Onion State Prison in Virginia,
two people close to Malvo
confirmed Tuesday. They did not
identify the woman.
washingtonpost.com/local

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that the payments went toward legitimate campaign work. He said most of the advertising-relat- ed payments had been passed on to vendors, as is the case with most advertising work. The firm has about 18 employees and “on any given day, e ight or more people could be touching her account at some point, between design, digital ads, social media, email content creation, high-dollar fundraising, political support and many other things that we provide for the campaign, Hailer said. “Similar to what we provide for countless other c lients across the country.” Hailer said he and Mynett be- gan working for Omar’s c ampaign after years of political experience in her district and in Minnesota. Omar campaign attorney Da- vid Mitrani echoed that point in a Thursday memo, which the campaign provided to The Washing- ton Post on Friday, saying that the firm provided bona fide campaign services at fair market value. “There is simply nothing un- usual about the services that E Street Group provides to Ilhan for Congress — and nothing inappro- priate with a vendor being reim- bursed for travel for bona fide services — even if that vendor is run by a candidate’s spouse,” Mi-

trani wrote. In its August complaint, the National Legal and Policy Center alleged that the campaign failed to disclose that payments to the firm “must be considered personal in nature” due to the reported relationship between its partner and the candidate. “If Ilhan for Congress reim- bursed Mynett’s LLC for travel so that Rep. Omar would have the benefit of Mynett’s r omantic com- panionship, the expenditures must be considered personal in nature,” the complaint read. The FEC lost its voting quorum shortly after the complaint was filed, and it is unable to take any official enforcement action on the pending complaint. “A s far as the nuptials, I think this event underscores the prob- lems we cited in our complaint,” Peter Flaherty, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, said on Friday. “You have a member of Con- gress paying a close friend and now-husband the bulk of her campaign spending,” Flaherty added. “It still raises the question of whether it is to facilitate a personal relationship or whether Tim Mynett i s the best possible vendor for all these possible activities.” [email protected]

sAlwAn georges/tHe wAsHIngton Post A complaint with the Federal Election Commission was filed in August against the campaign of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

BY SPENCER S. HSU

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for t he D.C. Circuit w ill r econsider the dismissal of two lawsuits brought by House Democrats to enforce a congressional subpoena for President Trump’s former White House counsel Donald Mc- Gahn and t o challenge funding for the p resident’s b order wall. The court’s decision marks at least a temporary victory for House Democrats and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over the weighty question of whether the judiciary has authority to resolve separation- of-powers disputes between the White House and Congress. Any outcome, to be decided after an April 28 hearing, will likely be ap- pealed to the Supreme C ourt. Both cases concern the com- mon question of whether the House has legal standing to sue the president. In one case, the House wants to check the president for allegedly overstepping his power by diverting billions intended f or other purposes to pay for the border wall. In the other case, the House seeks to enforce oversight through investigation and impeachment by demanding testimony or information from the e xecutive branch. In rehearing the McGahn case, the court also overturned a three- judge panel’s ruling Feb. 28 that Congress cannot sue to compel testimony b y White House a ides. In a two-page order issued Fri- day, the D.C. Circuit announced a majority of nine judges voted to vacate and reconsider the 2-to- ruling that McGahn can defy the subpoena issued by the House Ju- diciary Committee in its impeachment inquiry. Two other circuit judges, both Trump appointees who served in his administration, did n ot participate i n the d ecision. In McGahn’s case, a split three- judge panel agreed with the Jus- tice Department argument that courts should stay out of political disputes between the two elected branches of government. In d issent, Judge Judith W. Rog- ers said the high court has long recognized Congress’s power to investigate and subpoena information, and warned the ruling undermines l egislative o versight. The court’s opinion, she wrote, “all but assures future presiden- tial stonewalling of Congress, and further i mpairs the H ouse’s a bility to perform its constitutional du- ties.” The third judge on the panel, Karen LeCraft Henderson, agreed with Griffith’s overall judgment but rejected a Trump administration claim that top White House aides enjoy “absolute immunity” from compelled testimony. House Democrats went to court last year after Trump blocked Mc- Gahn’s testimony, saying the ad- viser could n ot be f orced to answer questions or turn over d ocuments. The House committee subpoe- naed McGahn in August before the start of formal impeachment proceedings that focused on Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine. Lawmakers said Mc- Gahn was the “most important” witness on the question of whether Trump obstructed justice in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation. Mc- Gahn left t he White House i n 2018. Before Trump was acquitted in the S enate on Feb. 5, House l awyers said McGahn’s testimony was still critical to establish a pattern of alleged m isconduct by the president. “McGahn was a key eyewitness to these events whom President Trump tried to enlist in this wrongdoing. President Trump has countered that McGahn is lying. The Committee must hear from McGahn directly,” the House argued in a 17-page appeal. Blocking the McGahn subpoena, the House argued, is “sorely misguided” because it undermines Congress’s constitutional authority to check a president’s powers and encourages presiden- tial stonewalling by future execu- tives who can rest s ecure knowing that “direct, wide-scale noncom- pliance” i s irremediable. The circuit also agreed to re- hear as a full court a House a ppeal of a lower court’s dismissal last June of its lawsuit to block spending on Trump’s p lan to build a wall at the border with Mexico. The case was argued last month but remains pending before another three-judge panel. At issue in the border w all case is whether the president’s diversion of funds to pay for the wall is an illegal a ct t hat violates the c onstitu- tional separation of powers between branches of t he government. [email protected]

Ann e. Marimow contributed to this report.

McGahn,

border wall

cases will

be reheard

BY MICHELLE YE HEE LEE

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s marriage to a political consultant has drawn renewed focus on her campaign’s payments to her now-husband and his firm, which are at the center of a pending complaint with the Federal Election Com- mission. Omar (D-Minn.) on Wednesday announced on Instagram that she had married Timothy Mynett, and the couple filed their marriage license in Washington that same day. Following Omar’s marriage an- nouncement, conservative critics raised concerns about payments by her campaign to E Street Group, which is run by Mynett. “Taxpayers funded her campaign. Now they’re funding her marriage. How is this not an FEC violation?” conservative activist Charlie Kirk tweeted Thursday. Citing an “irretrievable break- down” in her marriage, Omar filed for divorce from her previous husband in October amid allega- tions that she was having an affair with Mynett, a consultant for her congressional campaign. Two months prior, Mynett’s then-wife had filed for legal separation, alleging Mynett was “romantically involved” with Omar. Asked at the time by the CBS affiliate in Minneapolis whether she was dating anyone, she said, “No, I am not,” and declined to discuss personal matters. Mynett had denied that he was leaving his marriage for Omar or that he was in love with her.

Since 2018, Omar’s campaign paid about $586,000 to E Street Group for a range of services that included digital advertising, fundraising consulting, digital communications and design. The campaign also paid $7,000 to Mynett directly for fundraising consulting before hiring his consulting firm. Payments to the firm in the 2019 -2020 cycle for Omar’s r eelec- tion campaign comprised 40 per- cent of total campaign expenses, federal filings show. Representatives for Omar’s campaign and Mynett’s firm said this week that there was nothing improper about the payments because they were made for legitimate work. But as news of the alleged affair unfolded, the conservative non- profit National Legal and Policy Center filed an FEC complaint in August alleging Omar’s c ampaign had violated a prohibition on candidates using campaign money for personal use. Campaign funds cannot be used for personal purposes, including paying for a candidate’s rent or any personal membership fees. Federal laws allow candidates to use campaign funds to pay family and friends, as long as the money is used for a legitimate campaign e xpense and paid at f air market value. “Generally, the rationale is, as long as they’re doing real work, you can pay them as you’d pay anyone else. You can’t overpay them. It can’t be a no-show job or a low-show job. You have to actu- ally do the work,” said Daniel Petalas, formerly the FEC’s acting general counsel and head of enforcement. A partner at E Street Group, Will Hailer, who co-founded the firm with Mynett, said on Friday

Omar’s wedding puts

focus on payments

Criticism over campaign money that went to her now-husband is renewed

PennsYLVAnIA

Officer killed while serving warrant

A Philadelphia police officer was s hot a nd killed early Friday as he served a homicide warrant at a home, a nd s everal people were arrested, including the fugitive being s ought, officials said. Cpl. James O’Connor, 46, w as shot around 5:45 a.m. in t he city’s Frankford section, officials said. He w as shot i n the shoulder above his bulletproof vest when officers entered the home, a nd two p eople in the home were w ounded by return fire from another officer, officials said. O’Connor was t aken to a hospital, w here he w as pronounced dead. The two wounded people were stable, and t hey did not appear to have life-threatening injuries, authorities s aid. Their n ames were not released. Several people were arrested, including Hassan Elliott, the 21- year-old fugitive wanted i n a robbery and slaying last year n ot far f rom the scene, District Attorney L arry Krasner’s office said. Elliott was not among those injured, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said. Krasner’s s pokeswoman, Jane Roh, s aid more than one person

inside the house h ad a gun. Krasner l ater said that Elliott and a second p erson w anted i n the March 2019 murder were in custody and expected to be charged i n that case. O’Connor, a married father of two, h ad been an officer for 2 3 years a nd s erved on the h igh- stakes SWAT u nit for 15 y ears. His father retired after 40 years w ith the d epartment, and h is s on serves o n it now, the police union said. His daughter serves in the Air Force. — A ssociated Press

neVADA

Police officer fired over shooting reinstated

A veteran Las Vegas police officer w ho was fired f or hesitating in a casino-hotel hallway in O ctober 2 017 while a gunman upstairs c arried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U. S. history has b een reinstated to his job, authorities said Friday. Officer C ordell Hendrex is d ue to return to work March 21 following an arbitrator’s r uling in his bid t o get his j ob back, according to the h ead of the city’s police union. The Oct. 1, 2 017, s hooting left 58 people dead and more than

850 injured. Department officials confirmed Hendrex’s reinstatement in a s tatement t hat declined additional c omment. Body-camera video showed Hendrex, a Las Vegas officer since 200 7, l eading a rookie o fficer and three Mandalay Bay security officers on t he 31st f loor o f the hotel, o ne floor below where the gunman was firing, a nd s topping when they heard volleys of gunfire d uring a three-minute span. Upstairs, S tephen Paddock, 6 4, a former accountant and high- stakes video poker p layer, was using a cache of assault-style weapons h e had a massed to rain bullets f or more t han 10 minutes from the w indows o f a 32nd-floor suite into a country music festival filled with 22,000 people. Most of the r ifles were fitted w ith rapid- fire “bump stock” d evices and high-capacity m agazines. Paddock killed h imself with a handgun b efore police used explosives t o blast through h is door and find him more t han a n hour later. Hendrex’s group remained in the h allway for a bout f ive minutes before Hendrex l ed t hem h alfway up a stairwell toward the 32nd floor. They r emained there for at least 1 5 minutes. Hendrex later acknowledged in

a r eport that he was terrified. — A ssociated Press

GeorGIA

Court backs new trial over DNA tests

Georgia’s highest court ruled Friday that an i nmate serving a life sentence f or a slaying 4 3 years ago deserves a new trial after recent D NA t ests c ast “significant doubt” o n his guilt. Johnny L ee Gates, 63, was convicted o f murder, rape a nd robbery in the November 1976 fatal s hooting of 19-year-old Katharina Wright i n a Columbus apartment where s he lived with her h usband, an Army soldier a t Fort B enning. Wright’s hands were bound with t he w hite b elt from her b athrobe, and black neckties were u sed as a gag and blindfold. The state Supreme Court’s ruling upholds a January 2019 decision by a lower court ordering a new trial f or Gates, citing testing that showed Gates’s DNA was not on the fabric u sed to bind Wright. T he judge also found that prosecutors a t Gates’s trial purposely excluded b lack jurors, but s aid that evidence c ame too late f or consideration a s grounds for a new t rial. — A ssociated Press

DIGest

gerAld Herbert/AssocIAted Press People walk on a pier while carrying fishing poles as the sun rises on the Gulf of Mexico, in Orange Beach, Ala., on Friday.

The Washington Post - 14.03.2020

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