Russian firm pleads not guilty to election meddling
WASHINGTON — A Russian company accused of funding a conspiracy to meddle in the 2016 presidential election pleaded not guilty Wednesday in federal court.
The court appearance was the first by any of the Russian defendants accused by special counsel Robert Mueller of participating in a covert social media campaign aimed in part at helping Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. The indictment against the company, Concord Management and Consulting LLC, and 15 other defendants was the first brought by Mr. Mueller’s team to directly attach criminal charges to Russian attempts to interfere in the election.
The firm is controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy businessman who was placed on a U.S. sanctions list this year and who has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As they appeared in federal court, attorneys for the Russian company sparred with the office of Mr. Mueller. The clash revolved around the appearance of attorneys only on behalf of Concord’s management business and not two related defendants under indictment, a subsidiary catering company and Concord’s founder.
During a brief afternoon hearing, attorney Eric Dubelier, who represents the company, entered the not guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, but neither Mr. Prigozhin nor a company representative appeared.
Mr. Dubelier told U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey that he did not represent any other defendants, including Mr. Prigozhin or another company identified as “Concord Catering,” which he said didn’t exist during the time period laid out in the indictment.
In response, Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors revealed they had reviewed documents submitted by the company’s attorneys filed with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers U.S. sanctions. Those documents, they said, showed Mr. Dubelier’s law firm represented both companies.
Haspel: no torture
Mr. Trump’s nominee to be CIA director said Wednesday that she does not believe torture works and would not carry out any presidential order she thought was immoral.
Questioned by members of the Senate intelligence committee, Gina Haspel, a 33-year veteran of the CIA, said she would not permit the CIA to restart the kind of harsh detention and interrogation program the spy agency ran at black sites after 9/11.
“I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if it was technically legal,” she said.
China trade tensions
Chinese technology company ZTE said late Wednesday it has halted its main operations after U.S. authorities banned it from doing business with American suppliers. The U.S. Commerce Department slapped ZTE with a sevenyear sales ban, saying the company failed to punish employees who violated trade controls against Iran and North Korea.