Calif. defies Trump on abortion plan
WASHINGTON — The state of California told the Trump administration Friday that it would continue to require health plans in the state to cover abortion services and accused the administration of illegally threatening to withhold federal aid to California to try to force a change.
“California will take no ‘corrective action,’” Attorney General Xavier Becerra wrote in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services in which he defended the state’s abortion coverage mandate and accused the Trump administration of illegally threatening federal assistance to the state.
Mr. Becerra also pointed out that less than four years ago, the federal health agency concluded that California’s policy complied with federal rules.
“The facts ... have not changed since the last time [the agency] adjudicated those facts,” Mr. Becerra wrote in a response that his office said also came from Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Despite that earlier ruling, the Trump administration in January informed California that it had concluded that the state’s abortion policy ran afoul of federal law.
DEA agent accused of conspiring with cartel
MIAMI — A once-standout U.S. federal narcotics agent known for spending lavishly on luxury cars and Tiffany jewelry has been arrested on charges of conspiring to launder money with the same Colombian drug cartel he was supposed to be fighting.
Jose Irizarry and his wife were arrested Friday at their home near San Juan, Puerto Rico, as part of a 19-count federal indictment that accused the 46year-old Irizarry of “secretly using his position and his special access to information” to divert millions in drug proceeds from control of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“It’s a black eye for the DEA to have one of its own engaged in such a high level of corruption,” said Mike Vigil, the DEA’s former chief of international operations. “He jeopardized investigations. He jeopardized other agents and he jeopardized informants.”
Federal prosecutors in Tampa, Fla., allege the conspiracy not only enriched Mr. Irizarry but benefited two unindicted co-conspirators, neither of whom is named in the indictment.
Yovanovitch receives 7-figure book deal
NEW YORK — Former Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, the career diplomat who during the impeachment hearings of President Donald Trump offered a chilling account of alleged threats from Mr. Trump and his allies, has a book deal.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt confirmed Friday to The Associated Press that it had acquired Ms. Yovanovitch’s planned memoir. According to the publisher, the book will trace her long career, from Mogadishu, Somalia, to Kyiv and “finally back to Washington, D.C. — where, to her dismay, she found a political system beset by many of the same challenges she had spent her career combating overseas.”
“Yovanovitch’s book will deliver pointed reflections on the issues confronting America today, and thoughts on how we can shore up our democracy,” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt said in an announcement.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but two people familiar with the deal told the AP that the agreement was worth seven figures.