Tag Archives: State Department

As of this writing, this woman still has her job. A senior Trump administration official has embellished her résumé with misleading claims about her professional background — even creating a fake Time magazine cover with her face on it — raising questions about her qualifications to hold a top position at the State Department. An investigation found that Mina Chang, …

Bloomberg reports: President Donald Trump says he lifted his freeze on aid to Ukraine on Sept. 11, but the State Department had quietly authorized releasing $141 million of the money several days earlier, according to five people familiar with the matter. The State Department decision, which hasn’t been reported previously, stemmed from a legal finding made earlier in the year, …

The Associated Press reports: The State Department’s third-ranking official is expected to tell Congress that political considerations were behind the agency’s refusal to deliver a robust defense of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. People familiar with the matter say the highest-ranking career diplomat in the foreign service, David Hale, plans to tell congressional impeachment investigators on Wednesday that Secretary …

The Daily Beast reports: Facing a concerted campaign from Rudy Giuliani and his allies to oust her, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovich struggled in vain to get cover from U.S. diplomats, including her boss: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. At one point, according to a transcript of her Oct. 11 deposition in front of congressional impeachment investigators, she …

NBC News reports: The furious family of a British teenager killed in a wrong-way crash by a car driven by the wife of an American diplomat announced that they will be suing both the White House and the motorist for alleged “lawless misconduct” and “attempting to cover it up.” The threat to take legal action came two months after 19-year-old …

ABC News reports: The growing impeachment probe of President Donald Trump will mark a rare day Wednesday when House investigators are expected to hold two closed-door depositions. Catherine Croft is a Ukraine specialist who worked under Ambassador Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine who has become a key player in the impeachment inquiry. According to a prepared …

The Wichita Eagle reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo aggressively defended President Donald Trump on Thursday against criticism that his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from northeastern Syria would inflict lasting damage on America’s credibility with its allies. In an interview with The Wichita Eagle and The Kansas City Star, Pompeo said that Trump is good for his word and …

The New York Times reports: A yearslong State Department investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server found that while the use of the system for official business increased the risk of compromising classified information, there was no systemic or deliberate mishandling of classified information. The inquiry, started more than three years ago, found that 38 current …

The New York Times reports: The procession of high-ranking witnesses to the House’s impeachment inquiry continued apace on Tuesday, as George P. Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state in charge of Ukraine policy, arrived on Capitol Hill to face questions from investigators about his knowledge of the widening Ukraine scandal. Mr. Kent, who appeared behind closed doors despite the …

Newsweek reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a speech on Friday to the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) at its 2019 world conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Outlining “what it means to be a Christian leader,” Pompeo described how he applies his religious faith to government administration. Titled “Being a Christian Leader” and promoted in his official government capacity …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration directed a top American diplomat involved in its pressure campaign on Ukraine not to appear Tuesday morning for a scheduled deposition with House Democrats conducting an impeachment inquiry, according to two people briefed on the matter. The decision to block Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, from …

Politico Europe reports: Boris Johnson has urged the U.S. to reconsider giving immunity to the wife of a diplomat who is a suspect in a fatal road crash in the U.K. — and will raise the issue with Donald Trump if that doesn’t happen. Teenager Harry Dunn died when his motorbike collided with a car near an RAF base in …

NBC News reports: A dozen House Democrats are calling for President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, to resign in the wake of revelations about his key role in the unfolding Ukraine scandal. The calls for his ouster come as Sondland prepares to be deposed Tuesday by House committees as part of their impeachment inquiry into the …

USA Today reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo failed to comply with a Friday deadline to turn over Ukraine-related documents to House Democrats leading an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, according to an official on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The State Department’s delay in producing reams of documents related to the agency’s dealings with Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal …

The Times Of Israel reports: The US State Department has removed the “Palestinian Territories” from its website’s list of countries and areas in the Middle East, sparking an uproar among Palestinian officials. The current version of the website only mentions Palestinians on its page for Israel, in the context of the Trump administration’s peace efforts. Archived versions of the State …

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration is planning to open a U.S. consulate in Greenland for the first time in decades amid increased strategic and economic interest in the Danish territory. The State Department says in a letter to Congress that re-establishing a consulate in Nuuk is part of a broader plan to increase the U.S. presence in the …

Via press release from the Justice Department: William Patrick Syring, 61, of Arlington, Virginia, was today sentenced to 60 months in prison for threatening employees of the Arab American Institute (AAI) because of their race and national origin, threatening AAI employees because of their efforts to encourage Arab Americans to participate in political and civic life in the United States, …

Politico reports: The State Department has put on leave an employee of its energy bureau after reports that he has been an active member of a white supremacist group for more than five years, two sources familiar with the situation said on Thursday. Matthew Gebert, a foreign affairs officer for the department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, was linked to the …

Just in from the Southern Poverty Law Center: A U.S. State Department official oversaw the Washington, D.C.-area chapter of a white nationalist organization, hosted white nationalists at his home and published white nationalist propaganda online, Hatewatch has determined. The official, Matthew Q. Gebert, works as a foreign affairs officer assigned to the Bureau of Energy Resources, a State Department spokesperson …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman is returning home to Utah where he is reportedly mulling another run for governor. Huntsman sent President Donald Trump a resignation letter Tuesday morning and is planning to move back to the Beehive State in October. “American citizenship is a privilege and I believe the most basic responsibility in …