VOLUME 4 ISSUE 34
INSIDE
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WWW.NSJONLINE.COM |
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2019
Hornets have holes to fill heading into season,B1
JACQUELYN MARTIN | AP PHOTO
Vice President Mike Pence, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, left, and national security adviser Robert O’Brien, speaks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House, Monday, Oct. 14, 2019, in Washington.
the Wednesday
NEWS BRIEFING
Democrats weigh formal impeachment vote as probe quickens House Democrats are gauging support for a vote to formally authorize the impeachment inquiry as another official testified Tuesday in the deepening probe of President Donald Trump’s efforts to have Ukraine investigate Joe Biden. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to meet privately with Democratic lawmakers later Tuesday to survey attitudes about a possible vote, according to people granted anonymity to discuss the planning. She told reporters she’d have more to say “later,” after the evening meeting with House colleagues.
Attorney sentenced after pleading guilty to harboring alien A federal prosecutor says a N.C. attorney has been sentenced to three months in prison and has to give up her law license after pleading guilty to harboring an alien. U.S. Attorney Robert Higdon Jr. said in a statement that Sarah Jane Brinson, 34, of Clinton had entered a plea agreement with his office. Prosecutors say Brinson entered a prayer for judgment continuance for the illegal alien, knowing that person had assumed the identity of a U.S. citizen. Prosecutors say Brinson represented the same person in immigration proceedings under their real name without disclosing the use of another name. Prosecutors said Brinson notarized the person’s signature under the assumed name in a state court proceeding, knowing that wasn’t their real name.
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Cooper staffers will testify on pipeline deal GOP lawmakers are investigating deal that would have established $58 million fund under governor’s control NSJ staff RALEIGH — The ongoing investigation of Gov. Roy Cooper and his administration over a controversial settlement agreement involving permits for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is nearing its end. On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown (R-Onslow) and Rep. Dean Arp (R-Union) sent Cooper a letter giving him three options for cooperating with their investigation. The legislators told the governor that their investigators “have informed us that they have nearly concluded their witness interviews.” The pair then said Cooper’s options were to allow his “employees to speak with the independent oversight investigators,” designate certain staff — or the governor himself — to testify before the Subcommittee on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline or have the legislature subpoena the individuals if their testimony is needed to finish the investigation. Cooper responded through his chief of staff, Kristi Jones, who said the request to interview Cooper’s staff “raises unprecedented separation of powers questions.” Jones also called the investigation “outrageous” and accused the legislature of “dredging up old inquiries into an executive act that is almost two-years old.” She also in-
structed Brown and Arp to “inform your hired Republican investigators that members of the Office of the Governor decline interviews.” Jones concluded her response with an agreement to allow the governor’s staff to “answer questions at a public hearing in order to put this fully and finally to rest once and for all.” The investigation is focused on a settlement agreement between Cooper and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline where the pipeline group would be required to pay $58 million into a fund to be administered by Cooper as a condition of receiving their permits. Following the announcement of the deal, Brown and Arp raised concerns about documents mentioning Cooper’s role in a separate but concurrent negotiating effort in late 2017 to work out a policy disagreement between Duke Energy — one of the pipeline’s builders — and the solar industry. The pipeline memorandum, announced with a separate agreement that would have expanded solar production, could have eased the disappointment of the environmental community over the pipeline permit’s approval. In her letter to Brown and Arp, Jones claimed that “the solar settlement to which you refer was advanced by Republican members of the General Assembly and approved by the NC Utilities Commission.” The settlement agreement grandfathered hundreds of solar projects allowing higher reimbursement rates. That agreeSee PIPELINE, page A2
Pence dispatched to Turkey as US troops pull out of Syria By Robert Burns The Associated Press TARGETING TURKEY’S economy, President Donald Trump announced sanctions Monday aimed at restraining the Turks’ assault against Kurdish fighters and civilians in Syria — an assault Turkey began after Trump announced he was moving U.S. troops out of the way. The United States also called on Turkey to stop the invasion and declare a ceasefire, and Trump is sending Vice President Mike Pence and national security adviser Robert O’Brien to Ankara Wednesday in an attempt to begin negotiations. Pence said Trump spoke directly to Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who promised not attack the border town of Kobani, which in 2015 witnessed the Islamic State group’s first defeat in a battle by U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters. “President Trump communicated to him very clearly that the United States of America wants Turkey to stop the invasion, implement an immediate ceasefire and to begin to negotiate with Kurdish forces in Syria to bring an end to the violence,” Pence said. The Americans were scrambling for Syria’s exits, a move criticized at home and abroad as opening the door to a resurgence of the Islamic State group, whose violent takeover of Syrian and Iraqi lands five years ago was the reason American forces came in the first place. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) want Congress to produce bipartisan legislation to “overturn” President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria. The California Democrat says the measure must be stronger than sanctions on Turkey Trump announced Monday. Turkey invaded northern Syria after Trump started pulling U.S. troops from the area. Pelosi says she spoke Monday with Graham who has been drafting a bipartisan measure to bar weapons sales to Turkey and impose sanctions on the U.S. assets of Turkish leaders. Trump said Monday he was stopping trade talks with Turkey and boosting its steel tariffs, and would order sanctions on Turkish officials.
Trump said the approximately 1,000 U.S. troops who had been partnering with local Kurdish fighters to battle IS in northern Syria are leaving the country. They will remain in the Middle East, he said, to “monitor the situation” and to prevent a revival of IS — a goal that even Trump’s allies say has become much harder as a result of the U.S. pullout. Russia moved into northern Syria on Tuesday, deploying troops to keep apart advancing Syrian government forces and Turkish troops. At the same time, tensions grew within NATO as Turkey defied growing condemnation of its invasion from its Western allies. Now in its seventh day, Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish fighters has caused tens of thousands to flee their homes, has upended alliances and is re-drawing the map of northern Syria for yet another time in the 8-year-old war. Russia moved quickly to further entrench its role as a power broker after the pullout of American forces in northeastern Syria. The American move See SYRIA page A2