LA Times Today: Suspect in ‘American Idol' exec killing called 911 from victims' home, but police didn't find bodies for four days
Richard Winton covers crime for the Times and joined Lisa McRee.
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New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
Trump admin fires back at claims Clinton plan to ‘smear' prez with Russia ties was disinfo: ‘No one is buying your bulls–t anymore'
WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials ripped skeptics of newly released intelligence files detailing a purported Hillary Clinton campaign plan 'to tie Donald Trump to Russia' in 2016 — after the detractors claimed the sensitive documents were themselves the product of another disinformation campaign by Moscow. 'Are we really doing this?' asked Alexa Henning, deputy chief of staff to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, after the New York Times characterized the intelligence released Thursday as a likely fabricated product of Russian espionage. 'The Russia Hoax was concocted against President Trump by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, James Clapper, John Brennan, James Comey, Loretta Lynch, etc. by funding a FAKE Dossier and putting into a 'real' intelligence product briefed to Congress, the WH and leaked to the public by the spineless, gutless shills in the media. Where's that headline??' asked Henning on X Friday after posting screenshots of the Times piece alongside nearly decade-old articles from the Washington Post and NBC News bringing the same charge. Advertisement 'Not to mention it says in the recently released Durham annex and [House Intelligence Committee] report it says multiple times the Clinton emails were corroborated as authentic by the CIA,' added Henning. 'No one is buying your bulls–t anymore.' CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Attorney General Pam Bondi declassified the 24-page annex to special counsel John Durham's 2023 report on Thursday, emphasizing it showed coordination between Clinton's team and former President Barack Obama's administration to push a narrative that the 2016 Trump campaign was in cahoots with Russia during the election. 8 The files showed coordination between Clinton's team and former President Barack Obama's administration to push a narrative that the 2016 Trump campaign colluded with Russia in the election. Bloomberg via Getty Images Advertisement Ratcliffe — who referred former CIA boss Brennan to the Department of Justice for possible criminal prosecution related to Russiagate — said in a statement Thursday the files revealed 'a coordinated plan to prevent and destroy Donald Trump's presidency.' CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons added Friday that 'the Hillary Clinton campaign worked to plant the Trump–Russia narrative in the press—with her direct approval.' A report by the Times initially published Thursday tried to counter the administration, saying that 'a key piece of supposed evidence for the claim that Mrs. Clinton approved a plan to tie Mr. Trump to Russia is not credible: Mr. Durham concluded that the email from July 27, 2016, and a related one dated two days earlier were probably manufactured.' 8 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released special counsel John Durham's 24-page annex of the materials Thursday. AP Advertisement The annex, which Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released Thursday, does not show that. In 2017, the CIA determined intelligence on 'the purported Clinton campaign' — which included messages from operatives in the George Soros-founded Open Society Foundations — 'to not be the product of Russian fabrication.' Brennan also prepared a memo based on the intel to defensively brief Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden, then-Attorney General Lynch, then-FBI Director Comey and then-Director of National Intelligence Clapper. Emails from Open Society's regional director Leonard Benardo — which laid bare a plan from the Clinton campaign to boost messaging 'about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections' in order to 'distract people from her own missing emails' probe — was also considered 'likely authentic' by the FBI. Advertisement 8 '[I]t will be a long-term affair to demonize Putin and Trump,' Benardo was quoted as writing in a July 25 email. Chairman Grassley '[I]t will be a long-term affair to demonize Putin and Trump,' Benardo was quoted as writing in a July 25 email. 'Now it is good for a post-convention bounce. Later the FBI will put more oil into the fire.' On July 27, Benardo apparently authored another email stating: 'HRC approved Julia's idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections. That should distract people from her own missing email, especially if the affair goes to the Olympic level,' in seeming reference to a state-sponsored doping campaign by Russia following the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. 'We now know from the recent declassification that just days before the FBI launched Crossfire Hurricane, Russian intelligence reported on Clinton allies accurately predicting that FBI would 'put more oil into the fire,'' said Lyons on Friday. 'That's no coincidence, and any objective observer can see that.' FBI analysts and officers interviewed by Durham's office 'who were well versed in the Sensitive Intelligence collection, stated that their best assessment was that the Benardo emails were likely authentic,' the annex assessed, adding that investigators were 'unable to locate' identical copies. Some FBI analysts also said 'it was possible, however, that the Russians might have fabricated or altered purported U.S. emails.' 8 On July 27, Benardo apparently authored another email. Chairman Grassley But Comey's FBI never fully vetted the accuracy of the information because it wasn't deemed 'credible' enough. Advertisement Comey later testified to Congress that the conclusion prompted his July 2016 announcement of the closure of a probe into Clinton's deletion of more than 30,000 emails from a private server. In 2020, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence informed Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that it did not 'know the accuracy' of the files. 8 In 2017, the CIA determined the intelligence was 'not be the product of Russian fabrication.' REUTERS Durham's 'best assessment' was that the 'emails that purport to be from Benardo were ultimately a composite of several emails that were obtained through Russian intelligence hacking of the U.S.-based Think Tanks, including the Open Society Foundations, the Carnegie Endowment, and others.' Advertisement His office could not 'determine definitively whether the purported Clinton campaign plan … was entirely genuine, partially true, a composite pulled from multiple sources, exaggerated in certain respects, or fabricated in its entirety.' Benardo told Durham's team that 'to the best of his recollection, he did not draft the emails.' 8 Brennan prepared a memo based on the intelligence to defensively brief Obama. AP A rep for Open Society Foundations said in a statement: 'We are a nonpartisan organization and do not engage in political campaign activity. These accusations are not just reckless, they are dangerous.' Advertisement Biden's future national security adviser Jake Sullivan, when consulted by Durham's team, said he 'could not conclusively rule out the possibility' of a Clinton plan to spread claims of Russian collusion with Trump's campaign team. Clinton's former foreign policy adviser Julianne Smith, who told The Post, 'I don't have any comment,' when reached by phone Thursday, told Durham's team that 'she neither drafted nor recalled receiving' the information. Smith added it was 'possible someone proposed an idea of seeking to distract attention from the investigation into Secretary Clinton's use of a private email server, but she did not specifically remember any such idea.' 8 Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has said 'the Obama Administration sought to delegitimize the 2016 election … subverting the will of the American people and enacting essentially a years-long coup.' AP Advertisement Texts and emails unearthed by Durham showed that Smith had communicated with other Clinton campaign foreign policy advisers about whether the FBI or other Obama agencies would 'aid that effort … by commencing a formal investigation of the DNC hack.' The former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential contender, whose office did not respond to a request for comment, didn't deny the existence of such a plan and told Durham's office the files 'looked like Russian disinformation to [her].' FBI Director Kash Patel found the intel files — along with thousands of others — stored in 'burn bags' at the bureau's headquarters in Washington, DC, a source told The Post, and said the highly classified contents contained 'evidence that the Clinton campaign plotted to frame President Trump and fabricate the Russia collusion hoax.' 'They're trying to cover their hind end,' Grassley charged on Fox News' 'America's Newsroom' Thursday of the parties privy to the so-called 'Clinton plan.' 8 FBI Director Kash Patel found 'burn bags' at the bureau's HQ that contained the 'evidence that the Clinton campaign plotted to frame President Trump and fabricate the Russia collusion hoax.' Ron Sachs/CNP / 'The cover up was so bad,' the Iowa Republican later said on Newsmax's 'The Record with Greta van Susteren.' 'Some of these documents, emails and thumb drives were in trash bags, or what you call 'burn bags.' That's where the FBI found them,' he added. 'So doesn't that tell you something about the deep state here in this city of Washington — an island surrounded by reality — that they'd do anything to cover up and [avoid] embarrassment?'
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
Migrants from Venezuela detained at an El Salvador prison open up about the abuse they endured
In the weeks since the U.S. government released hundreds of Venezuelan nationals incarcerated at El Salvador's infamous Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) and sent them back to their home country, several detainees have spoken out about the abuses they endured. Times staff writer Kate Linthicum and special correspondent Mery Mogollón spoke to Jerce Reyes Barrios, a 36-year-old former professional soccer player, who left Venezuela last year and tried to apply for asylum at the Otay Mesa border crossing in California. He was among the more than 250 men accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua street gang and sent to CECOT by the Trump administration in March. Reyes Barrios denies ever belonging to the criminal organization. His attorney, Linette Tobin, said in a court statement that her client was accused of being a gang member because of an arm tattoo that featured a soccer ball decorated with a crown — a nod to Spanish club Real Madrid CF. He says the maltreatment began the moment they were removed from the plane. 'Welcome to El Salvador, you sons of bitches,' Reyes Barrios claims the prison guards told them. 'You've arrived at the Terrorist Confinement Center. Hell on earth.' Inside, Reyes Barrios said the men were constantly beaten. They were kept in overcrowded cells and slept on metal beds. They were hardly fed, were given contaminated water and were supervised by a sadistic staff. 'There was blood, vomit and people passed out on the floor,' he said. Reyes Barrios' account of what he experienced at CECOT is consistent with what other former detainees have described. 'The doctor would watch us get beaten and then ask us 'How are you feeling?' with a smile,' Marco Jesús Basulto Salinas, a 35-year-old kitchen worker who had temporary protected status, told the Washington Post. 'It was the most perverse form of humiliation.' Some of the worst abuse took place at a cell dubbed 'La Isla.' It was there where Andry José Hernández Romero, a 31-year-old hairdresser who left Venezuela out of fear of being persecuted for being gay, says he was sexually assaulted. Conditions inside CECOT were so bad that some detainees attempted suicide, while others contemplated it. 'I'd rather die or kill myself than to keep living through this experience,' 39-year-old Juan José Ramos Ramos told ProPublica. 'Being woken up every day at 4 a.m. to be insulted and beaten. For wanting to shower, for asking for something so basic. ... Hearing your brothers getting beaten, crying for help.' At one point, the men staged a hunger strike. When that didn't work, some of them cut themselves and wrote messages on sheets and in the walls using their own blood. 'We wanted them to see we were willing to die,' Neiyerver Adrián León Rengel, another former detainee, told the Post. After nearly four months of alleged abuse, the men were told that they were finally going home. Their release was part of a prison exchange deal— Venezuela agreed to free 10 jailed Americans. 'At that moment, we all shouted with joy,' Reyes Barrios said. 'I think that was my only happy day at CECOT.' The Times reached out to a spokesperson for Nayib Bukele, El Salvador's president, seeking comment, but did not get a reply. For its part, the Trump administration is refusing to acknowledge any wrongdoing. 'Once again, the media is falling all over themselves to defend criminal illegal gang members,' Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, told the Washington Post. 'We hear far too much about gang members and criminals' false sob stories and not enough about their victims.' According to internal data obtained by ProPublica, the Trump administration knew that nearly 200 of the men sent to CECOT had not been convicted of crimes in the U.S. If you're looking for something to do this weekend that's both fun and free, come join the De Los team at 350 S. Grand Ave. on Saturday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., as we co-present a Grand Performances concert headlined by Adrian Quesada. The multi-instrumentalist will be performing songs from 'Boleros Psicodélicos,' a duo of albums released in 2022 and 2025 that takes boleros — love ballads popular across Latin America — and injects them with a healthy dose of psychedelia. Every track on both records features a different singer, so performing 'Boleros Psicodélicos' live is logistically difficult given Quesada's lengthy list of collaborators. Joining him onstage on Saturday will be Gaby Moreno, Trish Toledo, Angélica Garcia, Mireya Ramos and one or two surprise guests. El Marchante and Explorare will kick the night off. The De Los team will have a booth at the event, where we'll be giving out free posters and copies of our 'De Los 101' zine for subscribers of the Latinx Files. We will also be raffling off tote bags! You can RSVP here. Starting Monday, I'll be going on paternity leave for two months. But fret not, for I leave you in the very capable hands of De Los writer Carlos De Loera — next week will not be his first rodeo. Working on this newsletter has been one of the most fulfilling professional experiences I've had, and while I'll miss it, I'm very much looking forward to having quality baby bonding time. I'll return in time to write the Oct. 10 edition of the Latinx Files. Unless otherwise noted, all stories in this section are from the L.A. Times.
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
LA Times Today: Suspect in ‘American Idol' exec killing called 911 from victims' home, but police didn't find bodies for four days
The man accused of killing a former American Idol producer and her rock musician husband called 9-1-1 from the victims' home the day of the murder and yet, it was four days before police discovered the revelation came after L.A. District Attorney Nathan Hochman held a recent town hall in Encino, where hundreds of residents gathered to vent their frustration at the pace of crime and police work in their community. Richard Winton covers crime for the Times and joined Lisa McRee.
