Watchdog: No proof Giuliani had inside info in Clinton probe
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s inspector general said Thursday that it did not find evidence that FBI agents shared inside information about the Hillary Clinton email investigation with Rudy Giuliani.
The question of whether anyone had leaked information to Giuliani arose after the former New York mayor said in an Oct. 26, 2016, television appearance that then-candidate Donald Trump had “some pretty big surprises” in the coming days. Two days later, James Comey, the FBI director at the time, revealed that the FBI would reopen the Clinton email investigation following the discovery of new emails.
The inspector general looked into whether anyone had improperly tipped off Giuliani, and more broadly examined contacts between FBI officials and reporters during the course of the investigation into whether Clinton had mishandled classified information on her personal email server.
According to a report issued Thursday, Giuliani told the watchdog office that he had not received any information about the Clinton investigation and that Comey’s comments reopening the probe were a “shock to me. I had no foreknowledge of any of them.”
He said he hadn’t been in contact with any current FBI agents during that month, and that the former officials he communicated with did not have information about FBI investigations.
As part of the investigation, the inspector general’s office asked the FBI to determine which agents, if any, may have been in touch with Giuliani. The FBI identified four employees, but each employee told the watchdog office during interviews they had not had any contact with Giuliani, according to the report.
The FBI said that the four employees had used their FBI devices to call telephone numbers associated with Giuliani, but the inspector general’s office said that information was either outdated or meaningless.
Texas Legislature: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday ordered the Legislature to reconvene for a third time to try to pass a Republican-backed voting restrictions bill that Democratic members blocked by leaving the state nearly a month ago.
The announcement puts new pressure on the more than 50 Democratic lawmakers who left Texas for Washington, D.C., on July 12 and have remained there since. They had been preparing to celebrate running out the clock on the current 30-day special session that ends Friday, which would torpedo the sweeping elections overhaul for the second time since May.
But their holdout may not be over.
Some Democrats said this week that they had no intention of returning to the state Capitol, even after they return to Texas and face possible arrest to compel their attendance.
Abbott, who is up for reelection
in 2022, made a new elections package part of a 17-item agenda he instructed the GOP-led Legislature to consider over the next month. It includes other hot-button measures sought by conservative activists, including new border security measures and rules over how race is taught in public schools.
Sen. Graham on Trump: As he recovers from a breakthrough infection of the coronavirus, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday that he has urged former President Donald Trump to press his supporters to get the COVID-19 vaccine, which the South Carolina Republican called “the antidote to the virus that’s wreaking havoc on our hospitals.”
“I’ve urged him to be aggressive
and say, ‘Take the vaccine,’ ” Graham said, days after disclosing this week that he had tested positive for the virus, months after being vaccinated.
On Monday, Graham said he had tested positive days after gathering with a handful of Senate colleagues on Sen. Joe Manchin’s houseboat. That same night, Saturday, Graham said he began experiencing flu-like symptoms.
Graham declined to talk about the Manchin event Thursday, except to say that “everybody there was vaccinated.”
In March, Trump said on Fox News that he would recommend vaccination to “a lot of people that don’t want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me.”
But last month at a rally in
Phoenix, Trump told supporters that he felt some people were not taking the vaccine because they “don’t trust” President Joe Biden and stressed people’s “freedoms 100%” to do what they felt best.
Afghan airstrikes: The Afghan air force carried out more airstrikes against Taliban positions in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, as the insurgent force made additional gains in the country’s north.
A defense ministry statement said air strikes were carried out across the country, including in the southern Helmand province, where the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah is being fiercely contested. The Taliban control nine of the city’s 10 police districts.
In northern Afghanistan, the Taliban took control of most of the provincial capital of Sar-ePul, the head of its council, Mohammad Noor Rahmani said. In recent months, the group has gained control of dozens of districts across several provinces in the north.
Meanwhile, Jawzjan province in the north remains under a three-month Taliban attack, with most of its districts having surrendered to the Taliban without a fight.
Australia sex offenses: The founder of the Sydney-based global Hillsong Church, Brian Houston, has been charged with concealing child sex offenses, police said Thursday.
Detectives served Houston’s lawyers Thursday with a notice for him to appear in a Sydney court Oct. 5 for allegedly concealing a serious indictable offense, police said.
Houston, 67, suggested the charges related to allegations that his preacher father, Frank Houston, had abused a boy over several years in the 1970s.
Turkey wildfires: A wildfire that reached the compound of a coal-fueled power plant in southwest Turkey and forced nearby residents to flee in boats and cars was contained Thursday after raging for 11 hours, officials and media reports said.
Strong winds drove the fire toward the Kemerkoy power plant in Mugla province late Wednesday, prompting evacuations from the nearby seaside resort of Oren. Navy vessels were deployed to help ferry away residents, while cars formed long convoys on roads leading away from the area, Haberturk television reported.
Turkey’s worst wildfires in decades have raged for nine days amid scorching heat, low humidity and constantly shifting strong winds. The fires have killed eight people and countless animals.