JUSTICE DEPT.: REVIEW OF RUSSIA PROBE “BROAD”
A Justice Department review of the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation is “broad in scope and multifaceted,” and intelligence agencies have been asked to preserve records and make witnesses available, according to a letter sent to Congress on Monday.
Attorney General William Barr said last month that he had directed John Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut and a veteran prosecutor, to determine if law enforcement and intelligence authorities engaged in improper surveillance as they investigated potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign to sway the 2016 presidential election.
“It is now well-established that, in 2016, the U.S. government and others undertook certain intelligence-gathering and investigative steps directed at persons associated with the Trump campaign,” said the letter from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd, the department’s top liaison to Congress.
Assailants raid village in Mali, killing at least 95 people.
BAMAKO» Assailants raided a central Mali village early Monday, killing at least 95 people in the latest massacre in a growing ethnic conflict that has been enflamed by Islamic extremists, government officials said.
Nineteen people were missing after the ethnic Dogon village of Sobame Da was attacked around 3 a.m., said Interior Security Ministry spokesman Amadou Sangho. Homes were burned and animals slaughtered, the government said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, though tensions have been high since a Dogon militia was accused of carrying out a massacre in an ethnic Peuhl village in March that left at least 157 dead.
Naval War College head reassigned pending probe.
R.I.» The head of the PROVIDENCE,
U.S. Naval War College was removed from his post Monday, days after The Associated Press reported he was under investigation amid allegations of mismanagement.
The Navy announced the reassignment of Rear Adm. Jeffrey Harley, who has been criticized for allegedly spending excessively, abusing his hiring authority and otherwise behaving inappropriately — including keeping a margarita machine in his office.
Lt. Cmdr. Jacqueline Pau said Monday that Navy leaders felt the change is best for the college because it maintains the integrity of the investigation. Pau, the spokeswoman for Adm. John Richardson, the chief of naval operations, said it would ensure that Harley is afforded due process.
California man guilty of killing family of 4 found in desert.
BERNARDINO» A Southern SAN
California man was convicted Monday of bludgeoning a couple and their two little boys to death, then burying their bodies in a remote desert area where the crime remained hidden until an off-roader stumbled across skeletal remains.
After a trial that spanned more than four months and depended largely on circumstantial evidence, jurors found 62-year-old Charles “Chase” Merritt guilty of the first-degree murders of business associate Joseph McStay, McStay’s wife, Summer, and the couple’s 3- and 4-year-old sons.
PG&E restores power to 20,000 Northern California customers.
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. restored power to more than 20,000 customers in Northern California after the company shut it off over the weekend to guard against wildfires amid a heat wave that fueled a blaze still burning in a rural area, officials said Monday.
Power to all 20,500 affected customers in Butte and Yuba counties was restored by Sunday night, said Jeff Smith, a PG&E spokesman.
The utility also turned off electricity Saturday morning to 1,600 customers in Napa, Solano and Yolo counties amid windy, dry and hot weather. Power to those areas was restored later Saturday.