Describe US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska

Russian oligarch’s deal for sanctions relief is sweeter than publicly portrayed, document suggests

A Russian oligarch allied with Vladimir Putin will, along with close associates, maintain majority control of a major energy company from which the Treasury Department is lifting sanctions despite the Trump administration’s promise to hold him accountable as a key beneficiary of Moscow’s “malign activity” worldwide.
Oleg Deripaska, along with his ex-wife, ex-father-in-law and a foundation Deripaska launched years ago, will together maintain well over 50 percent of the shares in En+ Group, the most influential of three companies from which the Treasury Department is lifting sanctions, according to an agreement outlining the deal’s terms, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post on Tuesday.
En+ Group controls Rusal, one of the world’s biggest aluminum suppliers, and EuroSibEnergo, Russia’s largest private power company, which are also addressed in the Treasury deal.
The New York Times first reported on aspects of the agreement, which appears to show that Deripaska is being treated more generously than the Trump administration has acknowledged.
The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment, but administration officials, including Secretary Steven Mnuchin, have vigorously defended the deal. The Post was unable to reach a spokesman for Deripaska.
The Trump administration sanctioned Deripaska and these three companies in April while taking aim at individuals and businesses with close ties to the Russian state. Before that, he was the subject of intrigue for his ties to President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who once worked for Deripaska as an investment consultant. Deripaska has said Manafort owes him millions of dollars.
While serving as Trump’s campaign chairman, Manafort offered to give Deripaska “private briefings” on the 2016 presidential race — what Manafort’s spokesman has characterized as an effort to settle past debts. Deripaska’s spokeswoman said he never received briefings from Manafort.
Now it appears Deripaska may be the beneficiary of a different arrangement with the Trump administration, as shares in his companies promise to rebound with Treasury’s decision to lift punitive measures against them.
Neither Deripaska nor his allies will retain voting rights in En+ Group commensurate with the holdings they will maintain in the company under the deal’s terms, according to the agreement. But the document has revived frustration among Democrats who, earlier this month, were unable to secure enough Republican votes in the Senate to block the deal.
“My concern all along was that Deripaska would retain control over his companies and benefit personally from this deal,” said Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “This new report suggests that those concerns were valid and that the situation may even have been worse than we thought.”
Last week, more 130 House Republicans, including the GOP’s entire leadership team, joined House Democrats to deliver a rebuke of the deal — and, by extension, of the president and his Cabinet.
“Because we cannot be sure that we have removed the heavy hand of this Russian oligarch, I cannot support the delisting of these sanctioned entities at this point in time,” Rep. Mike McCaul (Tex.), the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said just before the vote.
Under the terms of a sanctions bill Congress passed in 2017, lawmakers have 30 days after the administration announces its intent to reduce or remove Russia-related sanctions to prevent that from happening. That window closed Friday.
Deripaska’s agreement details how some of his shares will be dispersed without completely divorcing him and former relatives of a controlling interest in En+ Group.
Although his personal holdings will be significantly reduced, from about 70 percent of shares to no more than 44.95 percent, people and entities close to him will control additional shares, meaning Deripaska could continue to have influence over a majority of the company.
For instance, he is transferring more than 3 percent of En+ Group shares to a charitable foundation he founded in 2008, while his ex-wife and her father will continue to control at least an additional 5.5 percent of the company’s shares.
Other Deripaska shares will be transferred to VTB, a Russian bank also under sanctions, and Glencore, a mining firm with ties to the Russian aluminum market, including En+ subsidiary Rusal.
The agreement also outlines new ownership stakes for Rusal that appear to largely protect the holdings of another sanctioned Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, and his business partner Leonard Blavatnik, who holds U.S. citizenship and has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Senate Republicans and a million to Trump’s inaugural committee.
Vekselberg and Blavatnik are co-owners of SUAL Partners Limited, an aluminum company that will keep a 22.5 percent stake of Rusal under the Deripaska deal.
karoun.demirjian@washpost.com
jeanne.whalen@washpost.com


Describe US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska

US sanctions against companies owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska have been lifted.  What prompted imposition of the sanctions?  Why were sanctions lifted?  What Deripaska-owned companies were involved?  What impact did the sanctions have on Deripaska?  European sanctions on Deripaska are not relevant nor are European reactions to US sanctions.  Deripaska's relationship with Paul Manfort and Konstantin Kilimnik are not pertinent.

US sanctions against companies owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska have been lifted.  What prompted imposition of the sanctions?  Why were sanctions lifted?  What Deripaska-owned companies were involved?  What impact did the sanctions have on Deripaska?  European sanctions on Deripaska are not relevant nor are European reactions to US sanctions.  Deripaska's relationship with Paul Manfort and Konstantin Kilimnik are not pertinent and should not be mentioned in any relevant document.

Find information online that answers this multifaceted question.

Rebuking Trump, over 130 House Republicans challenge plans to lift sanctions against Putin ally

In a rebuke to the Trump administration, 136 Republicans joined House Democrats Thursday to oppose a Treasury Department plan to lift sanctions against companies controlled by an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The overwhelming 362 to 53 vote will not prevent the Trump administration from easing sanctions on three companies connected to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, as Senate Republicans narrowly blocked a similar measure on Wednesday.
But the House vote does mean that a majority of Republicans on Capitol Hill oppose President Trump’s efforts to soften punitive measures on a Russian oligarch — a rejection with potential implications for the administration’s continued stance on Russia, and for the GOP lawmakers who backed the plan to ease the sanctions.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and GOP Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) both broke with Trump to join Democrats to support the resolution, along with the rest of their leadership team – a particularly awkward rebellion for the White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky).
“I don’t believe this issue should divide our two parties. In fact, it should unite us … Congress must guard against playing partisan politics with sanctions,” said Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who previously served as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, where he led an effort to improve cybersecurity in the wake of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 elections.
“I think many members find Treasury’s case for delisting these particular Russia companies to have an argument, but not very compelling,” he added. “Because we cannot be sure that we have removed the heavy hand of this Russian oligarch, I cannot support the delisting of these sanctioned entities at this point in time and therefore I support this resolution.”
Treasury last month said it intended to lift sanctions the U.S. imposed last year against Deripaska’s companies, including a major aluminum producer, while keeping sanctions intact against Deripaska himself. The company sanctions initially caused havoc with global aluminum prices, prompting European allies to complain.
Treasury said it was prepared to lift the company sanctions because Deripaska agreed to reduce his ownership below 50 percent. His reduced stake would protect the companies “from the controlling influence of a Kremlin insider,” Treasury said, adding that the companies had been sanctioned "solely because they were majority-owned or controlled by Deripaska.”
Under a rules change Congress passed in 2017, lawmakers have a 30-day window to block any relaxation of Russia-related sanctions proposed by the Treasury Department. That window closes Friday. Treasury officials didn’t respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Critics and supporters of the sanctions decision have been scrambling to win votes in Congress, particularly in the last week. Leading House Democrats insisted that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin brief them on the Treasury Department’s plans, which he did last Thursday in a classified setting.
House Democrats emerged from the briefing complaining that it was insufficient, while Mnuchin has since been trying to shore up support among Republicans to keep Treasury’s plans intact.
Former senator David Vitter (R-La.) has also been lobbying on behalf of the Deripaska-controlled En+ Group, a holding company that controls the aluminum producer Rusal. Vitter was seen last week in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) office waiting for a meeting, just days before the measure objecting to lifting the sanctions came to the floor.
The lobbying firm of which Vitter is co-chairman, Mercury Public Affairs, has received more than $650,000 since May 2018 from En+ Group’s chairman to press for sanctions relief, the Center for Responsive Politics reported Thursday, citing documents filed with the Justice Department. A Mercury spokesman declined to comment.
The measure fell just a few votes shy of the 60 needed to advance it to a final vote in the Senate, even after attracting the support of eleven Republican senators including Marco Rubio of Florida, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.
“With the threat that Russia poses to the United States, to our friends and allies, to democracy around the world, Congress cannot just look the other way when the Administration rushes a decision like this. There are too many open questions about whether Deripaska will still control the companies that these sanctions address,” Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said on the House floor Thursday.
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) sent a letter to Mnuchin renewing the request to delay the easing of the sanctions, in light of the votes in the House and the Senate.
Washington’s sanctions on Rusal and En+ Group clobbered Deripaska financially, sinking the market value of his publicly traded companies. Rusal shares have rebounded somewhat on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since Treasury announced it would lift the sanctions, rising about 18 percent in a boost for Deripaska. But the stock is still down about 65 percent from its pre-sanction levels.
The U.S. sanctioned Deripaska and his companies in April 2018, among a group of Russian elites the U.S. said had furthered “the Kremlin’s global malign activities, including its attempts to subvert Western democracy.”
In announcing those sanctions, Treasury also noted that Deripaska had been investigated for money laundering and accused of “threatening the lives of business rivals” and having ties to organized crime.
Deripaska has denied those allegations in the past. He and his companies did not respond to requests for comment.


Describe US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska

Is Russia all out of oligarchs? It says it is.

Newly announced U.S. sanctions on Russia aim to target not only its political elite but also its financial elite: the “oligarchs.”
“Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement Friday.
But what if Russia doesn't have oligarchs? That may seem like a radical position, but that's the apparent stance of the Russian government.
“There are no oligarchs in Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday. The term that the Russian presidential spokesman said he would prefer was “representatives of big business.”
Peskov's comments echoed those of Arkady Dvorkovich, Russia's deputy prime minister, in January. The Russian oligarchs of the past are now gone, Dvorkovich told Bloomberg TV while at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Nowadays, we have good, hard-working businessman who care about their country and earn money through responsible means,” he explained.
Such remarks may cause many in the West to scoff, but there is a kernel of truth to the idea. The term “oligarch” first came to be used in Russian politics in the 1990s, when enterprising but often corrupt Russian businessmen used a chaotic period of privatization after the collapse of the Soviet Union to acquire vast fortunes. With their wealth, these business executives gained serious political influence in Russia's fledgling democracy.
As David Hoffman, former Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post, put it in his 2001 book on these men, “as their power grew, the tycoons became known as simply the oligarchs, the men who owned and ruled the new Russia.”
But times change. After Vladimir Putin came to power, first as prime minister in 1999 and then as president in 2000, he took to dismantling the power of the oligarchs — using the power of the state to go after the business executives who had used their companies to influence the state. It was one of the major policy threads during the first period of Putin's rule and was largely popular with the Russian public, which was sick of billionaires influencing politics.
Most of the six tycoons whom Hoffman profiled in his book “The Oligarchs” are no longer in positions of political power. Some ended up stuck in lengthy legal disputes with the Russian state: Mikhail Khodorkovsky, perhaps the most famous of all oligarchs, spent 10 years in prison before being released in 2013. Another, Boris Berezovsky, ended up in exile before dying in England in 2013 in unclear circumstances.
Of the six, Anatoly Chubais remains closest to the Kremlin as head of the Russian state nanotechnology company Rusnano. However, when the United States issued a list of politicians and business leaders linked to the Russian president in January, Chubais was not included. In response, he issued a mock apology on Facebook for failing his nation.
Chubais is not among the Russian business executives sanctioned Friday either, but other wealthy Russians were on that list. Of the seven business executives listed, Viktor Vekselberg is probably the wealthiest: According to Forbes Russia, he is in the top 10 most wealthy people in Russia, with a net worth of $14.5 billion. He is the chairman of Renova Group, an investment fund that owns assets in Russia's energy sector.
Other notable names include Kirill Shamalov, another major player in Russia's energy sector who is also reported to be Putin's son-in-law, and Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum magnate with alleged ties to President Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
These men are wealthy, yes, and powerful, but they do not hold the same position as the oligarchs of the 1990s. The first generation of Russia's tycoons not only drew their wealth largely from the state, but they were also able to influence the state dramatically, even using their vast power to save Russian President Boris Yeltsin during his flailing 1996 reelection campaign.
In modern Russia, wealthy business executives hold much less influence over the state: They own Russia, but they do not rule it. In fact, they are well aware that their own fortunes can be taken away by the state with little notice. Just last week, construction tycoon Ziyavudin Magomedov — whose estimated net worth is $1.4 billion — was arrested on embezzlement charges in a move many saw as a result of political infighting.
The U.S. sanctions announced Friday were designed to punish the Russian government and its economic allies for policy moves by Moscow, including interference in Western democracy and Russia's role in Ukraine and Syria.
“I think it’s important to see in today’s action a message. And that message is that actions have consequences,” a senior administration official told reporters.
Russia's new generation of tycoons may well benefit from the aggressive policies of Putin's Russia and may well deserve punishment. But unlike their predecessors, they do not have real power and do not hold real sway over that policy.
Indeed, some analysts argue that sanctioning Russian business executives helps the Kremlin control them. Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote on Twitter that the U.S. sanctions could result in a “win-win” situation for Washington and Moscow. The Trump administration gets to say it is striking a blow at the Putin regime, Trenin wrote, but “Putin sees his hand strengthened in his effort to 'nationalize' the Russian elites.”
More on WorldViews
9 charts that lay out Russia’s uncertain future — with or without Putin
The Russian journalist who helped uncover election interference is confounded by the Mueller indictments
‘The Kremlin list’: Why Russian oligarchs shrugged


Describe US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska

The Finance 202: Trump’s trade war is far from over

THE TICKER
The Trump administration’s bid to seize more unilateral tariff power from Congress looks dead on arrival.
Key lawmakers from both parties are throwing cold water on the proposal, which the administration is weighing whether to roll out in the State of the Union address later this month, Bloomberg News reports. If anything, members of Congress appear inclined to seize some agency back from the Trump team when it comes to trade policy.
But the fact that the White House is considering requesting the authority to issue new tariffs, product by product, underlines a bracing reality: Even as Trump officials appear to be making progress in trade negotiations with Beijing, the administration’s wider trade war is far from over.
The Commerce Department, for example, is still preparing a recommendation on imposing duties on imports of autos and parts
Trump trade officials are set to start negotiations with the European Union, and, separately, Japan in the weeks ahead.
The administration is still enforcing levies on aluminum and steel coming in from Mexico and Canada, despite having renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement with both countries
And with China, trade experts say any deal would almost certainly include a cease-fire forestalling the imposition of new tariffs in March. But the Trump team is eyeing a process that would force Beijing to hit benchmarks demonstrating they are following through with changes to their trade and economic practices as a condition for gradually lifting duties on the books for about $250 billion in imports.
Trump continues to sound bullish about the prospects of a deal with China (for more on the the status of those talks, see below). He told reporters Thursday the regime there, which his administration has identified as a leading national security threat, is “more honorable” and a better negotiating partner than Congressional Democrats.
Watch him here:
But Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), a key pro-trade Democrat, made clear he won’t support giving the administration a longer leash for its trade offensive:
And the bill would likely violate World Trade Organization rules, notes Jennifer Hillman, a former commissioner at the U.S. International Trade Commission:
— Trump mulls emergency declaration, Army Corps funds. The Post's Erica Werner, Josh Dawsey, Mike DeBonis and Seung Min Kim: ”The White House has begun laying the groundwork for a declaration of national emergency to build [Trump’s] border wall, a move certain to set off a firestorm of opposition in Congress and the courts but one that could pave the way for an end to the three-week government shutdown.
“The administration is eyeing unused money in the Army Corps of Engineers budget, specifically a disaster spending bill passed by Congress last year that includes $13.9 billion allocated but not spent for civil works projects... Trump has urged the Army Corps to determine how fast contracts could be signed and whether construction could begin within 45 days.”
Pence rules out DACA deal.
But Congressional GOP support for Trump's position appears to be forming more cracks.
Federal workers miss paychecks today
Powell warns of economic damage.
Trump announced he’s canceling his trip to Davos:
— AOC in line for Financial Services seat. Politico's Zachary Warmbrodt: “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is poised to win a seat on the powerful House Financial Services Committee, in what would be a victory for progressives fighting to curb Wall Street’s clout in Washington and inside the Democratic Party itself. The assignment, which lawmakers say they expect her to receive, would pit the 29-year-old New Yorker not only against banks that make up a major local industry but also potentially against business-friendly Democrats who have backed financial deregulation.”
That means she could be questioning Powell as soon as next month
Meanwhile, some House Dems are trying to rein her in.
— Stocks, down early, recover for fifth straight day of gains.
“The S&P 500 added 11.68 points, or 0.5%, to 2596.64 after falling nearly 1% earlier in the session. While stocks had been moderating their losses as the day wore on, the S&P 500 got a nudge following Mr. Powell’s speech, helping the index notch its longest winning streak since September.”
— Powell says no recession in 2019.
“Several prominent economists and investors have said there’s a heightened chance of a recession by 2020. Lawrence Summers, a Harvard University professor and former treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, said this week that he thinks there’s “better than a 50/50 chance” of a recession in 2020. Powell stressed the Fed is ‘watching’ the situation closely and monitoring potential cracks in the economy.”
But he is 'very worried' about U.S. debt.
Powell also signals more balance sheet selloffs.
“The Fed had been holding about $4.5 trillion worth of mostly Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities that it accrued during three rounds of monetary stimulus during and after the financial crisis. Starting in October 2016, the Fed began allowing a fixed cap of proceeds from those bonds to run off each month, with the level now reaching a ceiling of $50 billion.”
— Fourth-quarter earnings bring hotly anticipated numbers.
“On the whole, the numbers are expected to be solid. Analysts estimate that, when all the results are in for S&P 500 companies, fourth-quarter profits will have risen 15 percent over a year earlier. That would be the fifth-straight period of double-digit profit growth . . . It doesn’t guarantee investors will be happy.”
But gloomy signs right off the bat.
— Pelosi slams Mnuchin after classified sanctions briefing. Politico's Martin Matishak: “House Democrats excoriated Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday following a classified briefing about the Trump administration’s decision to ease economic sanctions on three companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. ‘One of the worst classified briefings we’ve received from the Trump administration,’ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters. ‘The secretary barely testified.’ ...
“House Democrats called for the briefing after Treasury announced last month that it would lift sanctions on Rusal, one the world’s largest aluminum producers, as well as En+ Group, the holding company that owns roughly half of Rusal, and EuroSibEnergo, a Russian power company. Deripaska — an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was one of several associates sanctioned last year over Moscow’s interference in the 2016 presidential election — has a large stake in all three companies... ‘We’ll see,’ Pelosi replied when asked whether she would consider a resolution of disapproval to block the removal of sanctions.”
TRADE FLY-AROUND:
— Top Chinese official to visit Washington this month. WSJ's Lingling Wei: “China and the U.S. are moving ahead with plans to hold a round of higher-level talks to resolve their continuing trade conflict, with President Xi Jinping’s economic-policy captain scheduled to visit Washington in late January. For now, Vice Premier Liu He is planning to meet with his U.S. counterparts including [Lighthizer] and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for negotiations on Jan. 30 and Jan. 31, according to people briefed on the matter. These people caution that the plan could be delayed by the partial U.S. government shutdown.
“We’re negotiating and having tremendous success with China,” Trump told reporters on Thursday.
Huawei's headaches spread
— Chamber of Commerce criticizes Trump on trade and shutdown.
MELTDOWN WATCH:
— Ford launches major European shakeup.
The move comes amid broader trouble for automakers in Europe.
— Mall-based stores suffered this holiday season.
“The negative sentiment even weighed on discounters like Target Corp. and Costco Wholesale Corp., which reported strong holiday sales. Those chains, which are less dependent on apparel, and Amazon.com Inc. have been taking market share from department stores.” (Amazon founder and CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
— A #MeToo reckoning for economists.
“Leading male economists offered an unprecedented acknowledgment of harassment and discrimination in the field. ‘Economics certainly has a problem,’ said Ben Bernanke, the former Federal Reserve chairman, who took over as A.E.A. president this year . . . Janet L. Yellen, who was the first chairwoman of the Fed and will head the A.E.A. next year, said that addressing the issue ‘should be the highest priority’ for economists in the years to come.”
— BlackRock cuts 500 jobs. WSJ's Dawn Lim and Justin Baer: “BlackRock Inc. is cutting about 500 jobs as the world’s largest money manager looks to simplify parts of its business and focus more on areas such as technology, retirement and alternative investments. The cuts make up roughly 3% of BlackRock’s more than 14,000 workforce and will take place over the coming weeks. BlackRock began laying off staffers Thursday, said a person familiar with the matter. The cuts will happen broadly across the firm; it isn’t clear which areas will be most affected.”
It could be just the start.
COMING SOON:
— From The New Yorker’s Lila Ash:
Here’s why some people who think they know it all don’t
Is your food safe to eat? Shutdown forces FDA to sharply reduce food inspections
Furloughed employees rally against shutdown: ‘Stop playing politics with our lives’


Describe US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska

Louise Linton is rebranding herself with a Sundance appearance and two upcoming films

Just in time for all this talk about taxing the rich, Washington’s favorite Marie Antoinette has resurfaced! Louise Linton — wearer of designer clothing, owner of expensive jewelry and the wife of uber-rich Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — was spotted at Sundance Film Festival this week. Linton appears to be trying very hard to put all her controversies behind her. A brief recap of her let-them-eat cake blunders: Her 2016 self-published memoir about her gap year in Zambia was torched for being a classic “White-Savior-in-Africa” account; she was savaged for an Instagram post of herself accompanying Mnuchin on a government plane in which she tagged her pricey designer clothing — and then clapped back at a critical commenter by boasting about how much she and Mnuchin pay in taxes; later, she posed with him, clutching a newly minted sheet of American currency bearing his signature — an image that immediately sparked memes and comparisons to Bond villains. But enough rehashing! Linton is trying to turn the page and cast herself as a hustling everywoman — albeit in the business of Hollywood films. Per an interview she gave the Hollywood Reporter, she has a new production company and is working on two movies: One is the never-released rom-com she filmed in 2014, and the other is a “dark comedy called ‘Me, You, Madness,’ about a young thief, played by Ed Westwick, who discovers he’s robbing the home of a serial killer.” Which sounds . . . interesting? Linton, who wore a pair of Ugg boots (her go-to “I’m relatable!” footwear) and a Dodgers cap around Sundance, is producing, directing and writing the flick. The former actress also recently refocused her Instagram account away from designer-flaunting and onto her philanthropy, she said in the interview. And she brushed off questions about a congressional investigation into her husband’s department lifting sanctions on Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, telling THR, “I’m a filmmaker, I’m not a politician.”


Describe US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska

Business recap: The week of Jan. 14

Retail U.S. shoppers spent Adobe, which collects its data by measuring 80 percent of all online transactions from the top 100 U.S. Web retailers, said the amount was 16.5 percent higher than last year’s total. Mobile platforms made up 51 percent of traffic to retail websites during the November to December period and were responsible for nearly a third of all online spending. Earnings Netflix reported The company added 8.8 million subscribers, slightly higher than the many analyst estimates of about 8 million. Of those subscribers, 7.3 million were international, nearly a million more than many had forecast. Domestic subscriber additions of 1.5 million were in line with estimates. The company’s revenue, however, was slightly below analyst expectations, coming in at $4.19 billion compared to consensus projections of $4.21 billion. Trade A surprising development The news comes less than two weeks before a high-level delegation from Beijing is scheduled to arrive in Washington for talks. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in recent weeks has proposed a tariff reduction as an incentive for China to sweeten its offer to the United States, according to two people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly. Administration hard-liners are opposed to eliminating the tariffs before China has taken irreversible steps to meet U.S. demands. Sanctions In a rebuke The vote of 362 to 53 on Thursday will not prevent the Trump administration from easing sanctions on three companies connected to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, as Senate Republicans narrowly blocked a similar measure recently . But the House vote does mean that a majority of Republicans on Capitol Hill oppose President Trump’s efforts to soften punitive measures on a Russian oligarch — a rejection with potential implications for the administration’s continued stance on Russia and for the GOP lawmakers who backed the plan to ease the sanctions.

Business recap: The week of Jan. 14

U.S. shoppers spent Netflix reported A surprising development In a rebuke


Describe US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska

How a McConnell-backed effort to lift Russian sanctions boosted a Kentucky project

In January, as the Senate debated whether to permit the Trump administration to lift sanctions on Russia’s largest aluminum producer, two men with millions of dollars riding on the outcome met for dinner at a restaurant in Zurich.
On one side of the table sat the head of sales for Rusal, the Russian aluminum producer that would benefit most immediately from a favorable Senate vote. The U.S. government had imposed sanctions on Rusal as part of a campaign to punish Russia for “malign activity around the globe,” including attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election.
On the other side sat Craig Bouchard, an American entrepreneur who had gained favor with officials in Kentucky, the home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Bouchard was trying to build the first new aluminum-rolling mill in the United States in nearly four decades, in a corner of northeastern Kentucky ravaged by job losses and the opioid epidemic — a project that stood to benefit enormously if Rusal were able to get involved.
The men did not discuss the Senate debate that night at dinner, Bouchard said in an interview, describing it as an amicable introductory chat.
But the timing of their meeting shows how much a major venture in McConnell’s home state had riding on the Democratic-backed effort in January to keep sanctions in place.
By the next day, McConnell had successfully blocked the bill, despite the defection of 11 Republicans.
Within weeks, the U.S. government had formally lifted sanctions on Rusal, citing a deal with the company that reduced the ownership interest of its Kremlin-linked founder, Oleg Deripaska. And three months later, Rusal announced plans for an extraordinary partnership with Bouchard’s company, providing $200 million in capital to buy a 40 percent stake in the new aluminum plant in Ashland, Ky. — a project Gov. Matt Bevin (R) boasted was “as significant as any economic deal ever made in the history of Kentucky.”
A spokesman for McConnell said the majority leader did not know that Bouchard had hopes of a deal with Rusal at the time McConnell led the Senate effort to end the sanctions, citing the recommendation of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
McConnell “was not aware of any potential Russian investor before the vote,” spokesman David Popp said.
Bouchard said no one from his company, Braidy Industries, told anyone in the U.S. government that lifting sanctions could help advance the project. Rusal’s parent company, EN+, said in a statement that the Kentucky project played no role in the company’s vigorous lobbying campaign to persuade U.S. officials to do away with sanctions.
But critics said the timing is disturbing.
“It is shocking how blatantly transactional this arrangement looks,” said Michael McFaul, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration and now teaches at Stanford University.
Democratic senators have called for a government review of the deal, prompting a Rusal executive in Moscow last week to threaten to pull out of the investment.
The Rusal-backed project is one of several issues fueling broader scrutiny of McConnell’s posture toward Russia and its efforts to manipulate American voters.
In 2016, McConnell privately expressed skepticism about the intelligence reports on Russia’s activities in the election and resisted a push by the Obama administration to issue a bipartisan statement condemning the Kremlin. Last month, he blocked consideration of election security bills that have bipartisan support, despite warnings from the FBI and the intelligence community about the risks of foreign interference in the 2020 election.
Democrats have accused McConnell of being unwilling to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, taunting him with the moniker “Moscow Mitch.” The critique has drawn an angry response from the usually understated majority leader.
“I was called unpatriotic, ‘un-American’ and essentially treasonous by a couple of left-wing pundits on the basis of boldfaced lies,” McConnell said late last month. “I was accused of ‘aiding and abetting’ the very man I’ve singled out as our adversary and opposed for nearly 20 years: Vladimir Putin.”
A McConnell aide declined Tuesday to comment on discussions that occurred in a classified setting in 2016 but noted that the senator signed a bipartisan letter that fall requested by the Obama administration that warned state election officials about the risks of cyberattacks and urged them to be especially vigilant as Election Day approached.
McConnell has said since then that he supports efforts to improve election security and has budgeted more money for the effort but does not agree with proposals that would give the federal government control over election issues that traditionally have been handled by states.
The controversy shows how Russia’s surreptitious 2016 activities, rather than uniting U.S. officials, have left Democrats and Republicans bitterly divided — and have triggered heated debate about Russian investments in American businesses.
“You just can’t be so picky,” said Bouchard, who sold a Midwestern steel company he previously owned to another Russian company. He now says politics shouldn’t get in the way of a good deal for Kentucky: “Whoever is going to help us go in and rebuild this place that’s been decimated, we just welcome it, with open arms.”
But in Kentucky, some leaders are questioning the wisdom of partnering with a Russian company recently punished by the U.S. government.
“Rusal is not okay,” said Kelly Flood, a Democratic state legislator from Lexington who said she regrets a 2017 vote to invest $15 million of state taxpayer money in the project. “It’s not okay that we’re turning to Deripaska, given the damage he’s done to our democracy. . . . Rusal’s reputation is now ours.”
An attorney for Deripaska did not respond to a request for comment. He has denied being beholden to the Kremlin.
“While I realize I’ve involuntarily become a lightning rod for the anger some Americans have about the elections result, they need to look elsewhere for a scapegoat,” Deripaska told The Washington Post in February. “I am nobody’s man, in Russia, the U.S. or anywhere else, for that matter.”
In Ashland, a city of 22,000 wedged along Kentucky’s border with West Virginia and Ohio, there has been enthusiasm for the Braidy Industries project, a venture the company says will bring as many as 650 new high-paying jobs to a region hit hard by the impending closure of a major steel mill and the decline of coal mining.
Bouchard said the idea for the mill was his brainstorm: a new environmentally friendly, low-cost, nonunion facility rolling sheets of lightweight aluminum that are increasingly in demand to build cars and airplanes.
He said he was leaning toward building the mill in Indiana until an hours-long meeting with Bevin in March 2017 persuaded him to give Kentucky a closer look.
Bevin got the state legislature to agree in the waning hours of its 2017 annual session to make a $15 million equity investment in the Braidy project.
“That’s skin in the game, and that means the state is behind you,” Bouchard said.
Flood said legislators were informed of the governor’s proposal at 9 one night as they raced to meet a midnight deadline. She said they were told only that the appropriation was needed to create jobs in hard-hit Appalachia, and not how the money would be invested. The bill passed unanimously.
Bevin, who in his bid for reelection is blasting Democrats as socialists, has fielded criticism that he steered the government to buy stock in a private company.
“This is a handout. This is a giveaway,” said Jim Waters of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a free-market think tank. He said he understood the desire to create jobs in a hard-hit region; some impact studies show the mill could indirectly result in thousands of new jobs. But, Waters added, “I think the excitement of that overrode some of the due diligence.”
A spokeswoman for Bevin did not respond to a request for comment. State officials have said the investment will make Kentucky more competitive to attract high-wage, high-tech jobs in the future.
In a 2017 radio interview, Bevin said he thought the Braidy project would be “transformative.”
“That’s going to be one of the best investments the state has ever made,” he said.
Early on, the Kentucky project apparently caught the attention of Rusal, which is the world’s second-largest aluminum producer.
A top Rusal executive told Bloomberg News in an interview in June that the project was “discussed long before Rusal was sanctioned.”
“We just had to put the talks on hold after sanctions,” he added.
An EN+ spokeswoman said the early conversations about the Kentucky project were all internal. She declined to comment further.
Bouchard said he was talking to other possible investors for the project from the time the company first announced it would build in Kentucky in 2017. But he insisted they did not include Rusal — and said that a partnership with the Russian company was not even on his radar when the Treasury Department announced sanctions about a year later, in April 2018.
“Not even a thought,” he said.
The sanctions allowed the government to freeze any Rusal assets in the United States and made it illegal for Americans to do business with the company.
At a groundbreaking for the mill a couple of months after the sanctions were announced, Bouchard and other speakers emphasized that the project would produce American-made aluminum sheets.
“This is what hope feels like,” Bevin said at the event, according to a video posted online, adding, “We are Kentucky.”
But Bouchard said he encountered an unexpected problem: With aluminum ore in short supply, he was having trouble finding smelters with the capacity to produce enough raw material for his plant. He said he traveled the world, meeting with Rusal’s competitors, but was able to find only 60,000 tons of raw aluminum to purchase. He needed more.
In late December, he said, an aluminum industry consultant alerted him to a new low-carbon smelter that Rusal was building in Siberia. Bouchard said he quickly concluded that the Rusal plant, set to open in 2021, could produce the aluminum Braidy needed.
At that point, he said, he became convinced that a partnership with Rusal would be a dream deal, providing his company with much-needed capital and access to raw aluminum. But sanctions, he said, stood in the way.
Bouchard said he contacted his attorneys for advice. They were clear: He could talk to Rusal, but he could not legally conduct negotiations with the company while sanctions were in place.
That same month, the Treasury Department announced plans to lift sanctions on Rusal. But Congress still had a chance to block the move.
Bouchard said that by the time of his January meeting with the Rusal executive in Zurich, he knew the sanctions could be ending. Still, he said, he thought the final decision could be months or years away.
On the night of his dinner in Zurich, which was first reported by Time magazine, the outcome of the sanctions debate remained uncertain, with some Republicans expressing concerns about the plan.
Over the meal, Bouchard said, he told his Rusal counterpart: “Look, I don’t know what’s going to happen with sanctions. . . . I don’t know if it’s a month or 10 years, but if the day comes and sanctions go away, I’d love to meet again.”
EN+ declined to comment on the dinner.
In April 2018, after the poisoning of a Russian former spy in England, the United States imposed sanctions on some Russian entities, including Deripaska and his companies. “Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities,” Mnuchin said in a statement.
A U.S. diplomatic cable from 2006, published by WikiLeaks, referred to Deripaska — who founded Rusal and had financial ties to Paul Manafort, the now-jailed former Trump campaign chairman — as “among the 2-3 oligarchs Putin turns to on a regular basis.”
In announcing the new sanctions, the Treasury Department
noted that Deripaska had been investigated for alleged money laundering and accused of “threatening the lives of business rivals” and having ties to organized crime. The U.S. government has not accused Deripaska of personal involvement in Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Deripaska sued the U.S. government earlier this year, alleging that the sanctions relied on “false rumors and innuendo and originate from decades-old defamatory attacks by Deripaska’s business competitors” and have led to the “utter devastation” of his reputation and economic well-being. He told CNBC in March that he thought the sanctions represented the “weaponizing of the financial system” and that they crushed “all concept of presumption of innocence and fair process.”
The sanctions caused Rusal’s stock price to plummet and disrupted the international aluminum market, drawing complaints from some U.S. trading partners.
In December, Mnuchin said the Trump administration was prepared to lift sanctions imposed on Deripaska’s companies, while keeping sanctions on Deripaska personally, to restore order to the international aluminum market.
He said that Deripaska had agreed as part of the deal to reduce his ownership stake in the companies he once controlled.
“These entities are undergoing significant restructuring and governance changes that sever Deripaska’s control and significantly diminish his ownership,” Mnuchin said in the statement. “If these companies fail to comply with the terms, they will face very real and swift consequences.”
Members of Congress were skeptical.
“There are too many open questions about whether Deripaska will still control the companies,” Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in January. “With the threat that Russia poses to the United States, to our friends and allies, to democracy around the world, Congress cannot just look the other way when the administration rushes a decision like this.”
With strong Republican support, the House on Jan. 14 overwhelmingly rejected the administration plan to lift sanctions, 362 to 53.
But the effort failed in the Senate, thanks in part to McConnell and strong lobbying efforts.
The effort to lift sanctions was led by Lord Gregory Barker, the new British chief executive of EN+, and included Republican ex-senator David Vitter of Louisiana, now a lobbyist at Mercury Public Affairs, according to public lobbying records.
Vitter and Mercury warned that failure to lift Rusal sanctions would “open the Trump administration up to criticism for harming U.S. manufacturers and consumers,” according to lobbying records. Vitter was spotted in McConnell’s office days before the vote.
Michael Crittenden, a spokesman for Mercury, said the Braidy project “categorically” did not figure into the company’s sanctions lobbying. He declined to comment on whether anyone at Mercury knew there was a possibility that Rusal might invest in the project if sanctions were lifted, citing a company policy about not commenting on client matters.
Just before the vote, Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned the Senate that providing sanctions relief “gives Vladimir Putin exactly what he wants” at a time that “Russia continues to run rampant over international norms, to meddle in democratic elections, and to destabilize the world.”
McConnell called Schumer’s resolution “a political stunt.” And he rejected claims that he or others in the GOP were soft on Putin.
“We Republicans are hardly strangers to the need for strong policies concerning Russia,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “We have long seen Vladimir Putin for the KGB thug that he is.”
At McConnell’s urging, the measure was defeated on Jan. 16, falling three votes short of the required three-fifths majority needed to overcome a threatened filibuster.
Joining in opposition was Kentucky’s junior GOP senator, Rand Paul.
A spokesman for Paul said the senator was unaware of the prospect of a major Rusal investment in Kentucky at the time and said he voted against the measure because he opposes sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea as a matter of principle.
“We were not involved, consulted or aware of any investment discussions with any foreign entity” before the sanctions vote, said Kelsey Cooper, Paul’s communications director.
Similarly, McConnell said he was not motivated by any Kentucky interests.
“It was completely unrelated to anything that might happen in my home state,” McConnell told reporters at the Capitol in May. “A number of us supported the administration. . . . And that’s — that was how I voted — the reason I vote the way I did.”
Less than two weeks after that January vote, the Treasury Department announced that it had accepted Rusal’s plans to limit Deripaska’s control over the company and removed sanctions.
Four weeks later, Rusal executives were in Ashland, touring Braidy’s mill site. By April, the new partnership was announced. As part of the deal, Barker, the British head of Rusal’s holding company, will become co-chairman of Braidy Atlas, the company that will operate the mill.
Bouchard, who said he had watched the Senate sanctions vote live on television, was thrilled.
“For me, to this day, this is one of the greatest things that’s ever happened to northeast Kentucky — Rusal saying yes to our deal,” Bouchard said. “Particularly if you think about Appalachia and what’s happened there — you know, those people today are jumping up and down and welcoming them, Rusal, because they’re helping rebuild the community.”
With sanctions lifted, EN+ is “exploring and acting on strategically expanding our global partnership and opportunities, including in the United States,” the company said in a statement.
EN+ is “the only global producer capable” of supplying Braidy with the low-carbon aluminum it had been seeking, and a result, “the whole project would not have been possible without Rusal’s investment,” the company said.
Despite the 2018 groundbreaking, Bouchard agreed that getting the mill open would have been difficult without Rusal. “It would have imposed upon us a real challenge that would have been tough,” he said.
Braidy is gathering additional investors and hopes to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq. The company plans to begin producing aluminum sheets by September 2021.
In Ashland, Braidy has opened a headquarters in a downtown office building, but it has not yet begun building on its site, city officials said.
And some lawmakers are voicing concern about Rusal’s role, including Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), a McConnell ally who has clashed with Bevin and criticized state investment in a project whose prospects he said appear uncertain.
“I hope we can get some jobs there. But it’s not looking real good for this business,” Comer said in a television interview in April. “I would have not taken the Russian money if I was a start-up.”
On Friday, the chief financial officer of Rusal said during an earnings call reported by Bloomberg News that the company could pull out of the project if U.S. officials continue applying pressure on the company.
The comment was an apparent reference to recent efforts by Democratic senators, led by Ron Wyden of Oregon, to secure a review of the Kentucky deal from the U.S. government agency charged with examining national security implications of foreign investments.
Barker issued a statement from London, saying Rusal’s parent company “remains committed” to the project. Bouchard, in a separate statement, accused the media of “taking an active role in trying to undermine” a project that could create many jobs.
Wyden rejected such complaints, saying he and several Senate colleagues were pushing ahead on a request for a review of the Russian investment.
“The national security of the United States is more important than the preferences of a Russian company,” Wyden said Sunday in a statement. “I’m not going to let up because Rusal finds oversight inconvenient.”
tom.hamburger@washpost.com
rosalind.helderman@washpost.com


Describe US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska

Europe urges Congress to support lifting U.S. sanctions on Russian firm controlled by Vladimir Putin ally

The European Union is pushing Congress to support Treasury Department plans to lift sanctions on a Russian aluminum company controlled by a Vladimir Putin ally, saying the sanctions have harmed European factories.
Aluminum plants “in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom have faced increased prices and significant challenges in maintaining their daily operations” since the U.S. imposed sanctions last year on companies controlled by Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska, said a Jan. 4 letter signed by ambassadors from the E.U. and the named countries.
The E.U. published the letter, sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, on Friday, a day after House Democrats expressed concern about Treasury’s plans to lift the sanctions on Rusal and two additional companies controlled by Deripaska.
On Thursday House Democrats said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin failed to convince them in a closed briefing that the United States should lift the sanctions, calling for more information and a delay.
“This, with stiff competition, mind you, was one of the worst classified briefings we’ve received from the Trump administration,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said after the briefing. “The secretary barely testified. He answered some questions, but he didn’t give testimony.”
Asked whether House Democrats were considering introducing a resolution of disapproval to try to stop Treasury from easing the sanctions, as Schumer has done in the Senate, Pelosi said: “We’ll see.”
Treasury has said Deripaska will remain under personal sanctions but sanctions against the three companies could be lifted because the businessman had agreed to reduce his ownership below 50 percent.
Mnuchin disputed Pelosi’s description of the briefing, saying he was “somewhat surprised to see the speaker’s comment...We gave them close to an hour and a half and answered all their questions.”
In an emailed statement before the briefing, Mnuchin said the sanctions had met their goal. “One of the goals of sanctions is to change behavior, and the proposed delistings of companies that Deripaska will no longer control show that sanctions can result in positive change,” Mnuchin said.
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex.), however, said he still has questions about whether Deripaska is really ceding control.
“I think there’s a real question about whether he’s effectively divested his stake, and we need more facts about that,” Doggett said after the briefing.
Washington’s sanctions on Rusal and two other Deripaska-controlled firms, enacted last year, clobbered the oligarch financially, sinking the market value of his publicly traded companies. They also caused havoc far beyond Russia. Global aluminum prices spiked, battering U.S. and European companies and prompting complaints from European allies.
European governments began warning the State Department last summer that the sanctions were hurting European factories.
A holding company connected to Deripaska and Rusal lobbied the Trump administration heavily to lift the sanctions. The chairman of the company hired Mercury Public Affairs and former U.S. senator David Vitter to call on the State Department and other officials.
The Treasury Department informed Congress on Dec. 19 that it intended to lift the sanctions on Rusal and the other two firms in 30 days because the companies had agreed to reduce Deripaska’s ownership stake below 50 percent.
The letter suggested Treasury wanted to lift the sanctions in part because of the havoc they caused in metals markets. The letter noted that aluminum prices soared and that “Rusal subsidiaries in the United States, Ireland, Sweden, Jamaica, Guinea and elsewhere faced imminent closure.”
Deripaska will not receive any cash as a result of the transactions necessary to reduce his ownership of Rusal or the other companies, Treasury said in the letter. And any future dividends he is entitled to from his reduced ownership stake will be placed into a blocked account, it said.


Describe US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska

House Democrats demand Treasury explain rollback of sanctions on Russia oligarch

The Democratic leaders of seven House panels are demanding Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin delay implementing a planned easing of sanctions on businesses tied to a prominent Russian oligarch until the Treasury Department briefs committee members on the matter. The committee chairs told Mnuchin they want the briefing to take place before Friday, as they are working against the clock if they want to stop the administration from acting on its mid-December announcement that it would roll back sanctions. “There are a number of additional questions that we and other Members of Congress must pursue to fully assess whether the U.S. agreement and the sanctions terminations are justified,” the panel chairs wrote, complaining that the administration had intentionally announced the change in policy right before a holiday and a government shutdown, making it difficult for members to exercise their right to challenge the decision. The Democratic leaders expressed particular alarm about the proposed easement of sanctions because of the oligarch who would benefit from the change: Oleg Deripaska, who has ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and “who has abetted the Putin Regime’s malign activity against the United States,” the lawmakers wrote. They asked for the Treasury Department to engage in “a full discussion of all aspects of the agreement” the administration reached with Derispaska, “the sanctions termination, and the impact that these decisions would have on the U.S. effort to end Russia’s malign activities aimed at our country.” In 2017, Congress gave itself the authority to prevent the president from reducing any Russia-related sanctions, but only if lawmakers voted to do so within a 30-day window of the administration announcing its intentions. The Trump administration announced it would lift the sanctions on the businesses in question on Dec. 19. karoun.demirjian@washpost.com

karoun.demirjian@washpost.com


Describe US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska

The Finance 202: Farmers stick with Trump despite shutdown and trade war. For now.

THE TICKER
Farmers have remained among the most stalwart of President Trump’s supporters. They helped him oust three red-state Senate Democrats in the midterms, defying November’s blue tide even as they bore the brunt of his trade war.
Now, with the government shutdown compounding farmers’ pain, Trump on Monday made a special appeal to them to stick with him. The pitch — in an address to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual convention in New Orleans — reflects the president’s gamble that his base won’t waver as his confrontations with trading partners abroad and Democrats on Capitol Hill drag on.
Anecdotal evidence suggests he may be right. Sentiment in the crowd appeared to run in the president's favor. Among those in attendance:
— Steven McLeod, a livestock and small grain farmer from Kansas, tells my colleagues Annie Gowen and David Nakamura he’s “cautiously optimistic” Trump will conclude his trade offensive soon with a net win for farmers whose crops have been the target of retaliatory tariffs.
— Bob Schwenke, a Kentucky corn and soybean grower, struck a similar note, reasoning the short-term disruption of the trade war is worth it, because “a better trade deal will benefit the next generation to come.”
— Richard Musel, another corn and soybean farmer in the crowd, told the AP’s Jonathan Lemire that his business is “marginal” but he stands with Trump in the trade fight and blames Democrats for not funding the border wall.
— North Carolina farmers Lemuel and Shelby Ricks have endured a double whammy: They need relief from low commodity prices but can’t apply for Trump’s farm bailout because of the shutdown. They’re sticking with Trump anyway and plan to vote for him in 2020. “We’re not giving up on him now,” Shelby told Lemire.
In his speech, Trump leaned into his demand for border wall funding and an aggressive immigration crackdown. He also nodded toward the agriculture sector’s reliance on migrant labor by asserting he wants legal changes that “actually make it easier” to hire immigrants as temporary workers. And he said his administration is doing “everything in its power” to defray the effects of the shutdown on farmers.
But farmers are suffering now. The trade wars have crushed prices for their goods to the tune of billions of dollars. And the shutdown is pushing some to a breaking point
Trump signed an $876 billion farm bill into law last month that provides billions of dollars in aid to farmers. But shuttered Agriculture Department offices can’t implement programs included to protect farmers from price swings and other services.
The damage is a direct result of Trump policies. China and Europe designed levies they imposed on American exports in response to Trump’s tariffs to target farm states, a bid to hit the president in his base
Yet there’s little evidence so far that Republican senators in those states are feeling pressure from their voters to try to force an end to the shutdown.
“In general, rural and ag state voters have stuck with the president even when his policies caused them short-term pain,”
— Paralysis grips Washington. The Post's Bob Costa, Sean Sullivan and Erica Werner: “Trump’s dismissals of his own party’s calls for compromise and his seeming indifference to shuttered federal agencies left the snowbound capital paralyzed Monday, with lawmakers in both parties scrambling to jump-start talks but increasingly uncertain about Trump’s interest in ending the longest government shutdown in history...
“Trump’s unyielding stance and lack of an evident plan to broker an end to the 24-day impasse comes at a fragile moment for his presidency, following a weekend at the White House during which he lashed out at critics large and small on Twitter and faced deeper scrutiny of his relationship with Russian leaders.”
Poll: Trump's losing.
TSA staff spread thin
“Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport said it didn’t have enough TSA staff to work all checkpoints and said its Terminal B screening point would remain closed Monday after shutting down Sunday. Meanwhile Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest airport by passenger traffic, reported delays of more than an hour at checkpoints early Monday... The TSA’s unplanned absence rate hovered at around 5% the week leading up to Friday, when the agency’s workers missed their first paycheck. On Monday, the rate was 7.6%, up from 3.2% on the same day a year ago.”
— Senate GOP struggles with Russian sanctions vote. CNN's Donna Borak, Ted Barrett and Jeremy Herb: “Senate Republican leaders are facing serious concerns from rank-and-file members about a Democratic bill that would reverse the Trump administration’s plan to ease sanctions on three companies with ties to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a close Kremlin ally. A key vote on the measure, which Minority Leader Chuck Schumer can force under the 2017 Russia sanctions law, is expected at some point Tuesday, and will give Democrats another chance to blast Republicans over [Trump’s] relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin…
“The growing concerns about potential Republican defections come amid a new wave of questions about Trump’s relationship with Putin in the wake of a bombshell New York Times report that the FBI in 2017 decided to investigate why Trump took actions that seemed to benefit Russia.”
— Stocks fall for just the third time in January
For investors, cash is king.
Don't fear a recession, Morgan Stanley says.
“To play these next moves, Wilson and the strategists warn investors that the S&P should hit resistance and they should lighten up if it gets to 2,600 to 2,650. But once the market responds to the worsening earnings picture and returns to recent lows in the 2,400 area, investors should jump back in and buy cyclical names.”
— Yellen warns of a slowdown.
More Yellen: Fed may be done hiking
— May's Brexit deal faces certain defeat. Bloomberg's Thomas Penny and Robert Hutton: “Prime Minister Theresa May is set to see her Brexit deal rejected in the biggest Parliamentary defeat for a British government in 95 years after her last minute pleas for support appeared to fall on deaf ears. The battle now is over not whether May loses, but how badly… A defeat by more than 220 votes could see sterling fall to $1.225, according to Neil Jones, head of hedge-fund currency sales at Mizuho Bank. Meanwhile, a margin of less than 60 would leave some room for hope, several EU officials said last week, and the bloc may look at fresh ways of making the agreement more palatable to get it across the line.”
— DOJ moves to restrict online gambling. The Post's Tom Hamburger, Matt Zapotosky and Josh Dawsey: “The Justice Department late Monday issued a legal opinion that could further restrict online gambling even as some states have been moving to embrace it — a restriction long sought by GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson, who controls one of the world’s largest casino empires. The opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which will probably be tested in the courts, reversed an Obama-era opinion that declared that the Wire Act applied only to sports gambling.”
TRADE FLY-AROUND:
— China's trade slump means the pressure is on.
“At the same time, China’s overall trade surplus with the U.S. hit a record in 2018, underscoring the political imperative to cut a deal ahead of a March 1 deadline after which [Trump] has threatened to impose additional tariffs on Chinese goods. The numbers show how the world’s biggest trading nation is being hit by a confluence of slowing global growth and by uncertainty linked to the trade war factors that are expected to linger in the near term, at least.”
China ramps up economic support.
And asks state firms to avoid travel to the U.S.
— Trump predicts a deal.
U.S. trade rep, affected by shutdown, will continue with negotiations.
MELTDOWN WATCH:
— Ivanka to help lead World Bank prez search. WSJ's Josh Zumbrun and Alex Leary: “Ivanka Trump, [Trump’s] daughter and senior White House adviser, will help Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney lead the process of selecting the next World Bank president. Ms. Trump isn’t a candidate for the position but will ‘help manage the U.S. nomination process as she’s worked closely with the World Bank’s leadership for the past two years,’ according a White House representative. The selection is shaping up as a test of the Trump administration’s international clout. The World Bank president has always been an American, but this outcome isn’t guaranteed. The abrupt resignation of the bank’s president Jim Yong Kim has created an opportunity for countries seeking a non-American to lead the World Bank.”
AEI’s Jim Pethokoukis asks the key question:
— PG&E faces collapse.
“It was among at least 17 major wildfires that year that California investigators have tied to PG&E. Data from the state firefighting agency, Cal Fire, show the fires together scorched 193,743 acres in eight counties, destroyed 3,256 structures and killed 22 people. California’s largest utility, with a history of safety and maintenance problems, has been scrambling for five years to reduce fire risks. It has been overwhelmed by the threat’s severity and the challenge of shoring up thousands of miles of aging power lines and cutting and trimming millions of trees in a service area larger than Florida . . . Sunday evening, PG&E announced that Chief Executive Geisha Williams was stepping down and that John Simon, the company’s general counsel, would serve as interim CEO until a replacement is found. On Monday, the company said it plans to file for bankruptcy protection by the end of the month.”
— Notorious hedge fund takes aim at Gannett.
— Supreme Court rejects CFPB challenge. Reuters's Lawrence Hurley: “The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away a Texas bank’s constitutional challenge to the structure of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, passing up a case that could have led to more presidential power over an independent agency that [Trump’s] administration already has weakened. The decision by the justices not to hear an appeal by State National Bank of Big Spring may not be the final word on the matter as three other cases involving the CFPB are heading toward the high court.
COMING SOON:
— From The New Yorker’s Ivan Ehlers:
Opinion | No, collusion is not a crime. But conspiracy is.
How do snowflakes form?
8 unforgettable Super Bowl halftime show moments


Describe US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska

Russian tycoon sues former Trump campaign manager Manafort

steven.mufson@washpost.com

The billionaire Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska filed suit in New York State Court Wednesday against President Trump's former campaign manager Paul J. Manafort and his partner Rick Gates, claiming the two had defrauded him of $18.9 million.
The case was filed by Surf Horizon, a firm controlled by Deripaska. It alleged that Manafort and Gates had used as "their personal piggy banks" a web of partnerships financed with funds invested by Deripaska in 2007 and 2008.
The lawsuit refers often to the indictment brought against Manafort and Gates by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. The lawsuit said that "the dealings of Manafort and Gates with Surf mirror the pattern of corporate dealings alleged in the Indictment" and that the special counsel's case "provided further support" for the allegations.
Deripaska also says that bank records obtained May 2017 in a Cyprus lawsuit showed that Manafort and Gates moved funds in and out of accounts "without any apparent business reason, but ultimately making payments of millions of dollars to them individually or to their personal vendors or creditors."
Surf Horizon also alleges that Manafort and Gates gave false testimony in the Cyprus case.
The lawsuit asks for legal fees, $1.1 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages.
A similar case was filed in the Cayman Islands in 2014.
"We are surprised by this filing," said Jason Maloni, president of public relations firm JadeRoq and a spokesman for Manafort. "This is a commercial matter which we thought had been addressed and resolved years ago. We will respond, if we must do so, in the appropriate manner."
Gates could not be reached for comment.
Manafort and Gates in 2006 had wooed Deripaska to invest in a $200 million fund to make private equity deals, primarily in Russia and Ukraine. Manafort and Gates formed a Cayman Islands partnership called Pericles Emerging Market Partners. Deripaska knew Gates, who had helped arrange meetings for him with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). He invested $18.9 million through Surf Horizon and paid $7.35 million in management fees.
However, the lawsuit says, there were no other investors and the fund's sole investment was a Ukrainian cable TV station called Black Sea Cable. It adds that Manafort and Gates overstated the cost of the station. The suit says that Manafort and Gates "had siphoned for themselves millions of dollars."
During the 2008 credit crunch, Deripaska had asked for his money back but never received any of it.
The suit adds that Manafort and Gates "grossly" mismanaged the investment, "resulting in a total loss of the amount invested."
Surf Horizon said that it wasn't until one of its affiliates, Adoptol, filed a proceeding in Cyprus that it obtained the partnership records it sought from Manafort and Gates. Those records, it said, "provided proof for the first time that Manafort and Gates had defrauded Surf."
steven.mufson@washpost.com


Describe US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska

U.S. sanctions ensnare Russians with ties to Trump world

The Trump administration imposed new economic sanctions on Russian politicians, tycoons and businesses  Friday in its most aggressive response to recurring cyber offensives and Moscow’s attempts to undermine Western democracies.
The measures take aim not only at Russians directly connected to the Kremlin but also several with links to President Trump’s campaign or his associates who have been scrutinized in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation.
The sanctions continue the Trump administration’s trend of taking increasingly bold moves against Russia under pressure from Congress even as Trump holds out the possibility of warmer relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The Russian government operates for the disproportionate benefit of oligarchs and government elites,” Treasury Secretary Steven  Mnuchin said in a statement. “Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry vowed a “harsh response” and said the measures would be  as ineffective as previous rounds of sanctions.
The list includes 17 Russian government officials, a state-owned weapons trading company and seven oligarchs. Several of the individuals have close ties to Putin, including the son of  a childhood friend of the Russian president, and an energy executive who vacationed in a dacha near the Putin family and married his daughter.
Some of the oligarchs, such as natural resources magnates Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg, made their fortunes in the 1990s and have looser connections to Putin. Others got rich running some of Russia’s biggest state-controlled energy and financial firms, including the energy giant Gazprom and the state-controlled bank VTB.
But what sets Deripaska and Vekselberg apart from the many other Russian tycoons who did not make the list is their connections to the Trump world.
Deripaska, for example, was once a business partner of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is facing money-laundering charges. A top executive at a U.S. company affiliated with Vekselberg donated to the Trump inauguration fund, and Vekselberg attended the inauguration.
Other people whose names have surfaced in connection with the Russia investigation also ended up on the Treasury’s list. Konstantin Kosachev, a Russian lawmaker who led soft-power initiatives for the government and surfaced in a now-famous dossier alleging the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin during the 2016 election, was sanctioned  Friday. So was Alexander Torshin, a little-known deputy central bank governor who rose to public interest in the United States only after his efforts to promote gun rights in the United States landed him at a table with Donald Trump Jr. during a 2016 National Rifle Association conference.
The list of targets also includes Igor Rotenberg, the son of a Russian tycoon who grew up taking martial arts classes with Putin, and Kirill Shamalov, who also grew up in a family close to the Putins and who the Treasury said married Putin’s daughter in 2013.
The action also sanctioned top national security officials, including Nikolai Patrushev, a former KGB officer and longtime secretary of the Security Council of Russia, and  Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Russia’s interior minister.
The sanctions freeze any assets the individuals or entities named hold in the United States and prohibit U.S. citizens from conducting business with them — even if they work for international companies outside the United States. The Treasury Department said it would issue guidance to Americans on how to unwind from any business interests they have with them in a way to avoid being punished for violating sanctions.
The real power of sanctions is they discourage international financial institutions, which typically conduct business at least partially in U.S. dollars, from doing business with them. The administration explicitly warned that non-Americans may face sanctions themselves for facilitating significant transactions with the people and companies named.
Senior administration officials on Friday stressed that the sanctions were not aimed at the Russian people. Instead, they were meant to cripple the finances of those elites who have “disproportionately benefited from the bad decisions made by the Kremlin on their behalf,” one of the officials said.
The officials declined to elaborate on why Putin was not directly targeted, but said several people in the Russian leader’s inner circle were being sanctioned.
“I think it’s important to see in today’s action a message. And that message is that actions have consequences,” said another senior administration official, who spoke to reporters only on the condition of anonymity. “Today’s announcements are the result of a decision that the Russian government has made and continues to make in choosing a path of confrontation.”
Russia accused Washington of futile scaremongering that has included denying visas and seizing property and financial shares. In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the United States had forgotten that the seizure of property and foreign money amounts to “plunder.”
In recent weeks, Trump’s top advisers have pushed for tougher actions against the Kremlin after the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, interference in the 2016 U.S. election and a cyberattack against Ukraine and other countries last year that was described as the most costly in history.
The sanctions won quick support from Congress, which has pushed for tough moves against Putin’s inner circle since last year, when it passed legislation requiring the Treasury Department to publish a list of Russian oligarchs. Trump signed the legislation after it passed with a veto-proof majority, even as he called it a seriously flawed and unconstitutional bill.
“These new sanctions send a clear message to Vladimir Putin that the illegal occupation of Ukraine, support for the Assad regime’s war crimes, efforts to undermine Western democracies and malicious cyberattacks will continue to result in severe consequences for him and those who empower him,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
The Kremlin has expressed increasing exasperation with  policies under the Trump administration despite hopes that the president would take a softer approach toward Moscow. Last week, the United States expelled 60 Russian spies and diplomats in response to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, and his daughter. It was the largest expulsion of Russians in U.S. history. Russia, in turn, expelled 60 U.S. officials.
Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, meanwhile, tweeted that he is “looking at the new US sanctions list of Russian officials and oligarchs and thinking back of the day when they had champagne celebrating Trump’s victory. I am laughing.”
john.hudson@washpost.com
paul.sonne@washpost.com


Describe US sanctions on Oleg Deripaska

The Daily 202: Trump hands the Russians more victories with Syria withdrawal, sanctions relief and Ukraine inaction

With Joanie Greve
THE BIG IDEA: “Despite what the Fake News says,” President Trump tweeted Thursday morning, Russia is “not happy” about his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. As a point of fact, he could not be more wrong.
Moments earlier, Vladimir Putin had praised Trump for retreating. “On this, Donald is right,” the Russian president said during his year-end news conference in Moscow. “I agree with him.”
Russia is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s most powerful ally. Putin has propped him up since 2015 by stationing more troops inside Syria than the United States ever did, and experts — including those inside the Trump administration as well as across the ideological spectrum — agree that the Kremlin will be able to expand its sphere of influence on the ground if America abandons its anti-Assad allies.
-- “Moscow is celebrating,” said Victoria Nuland, the chief executive of the Center for a New American Security and the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs under Barack Obama.
“After years of pretending to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the Syria crisis with Washington, Putin can ignore the entreaties of Trump’s envoys because the United States will have no military skin in the game to back its diplomacy,” Nuland explains in an op-ed. “The Kremlin will proceed as it has long planned, consolidating control over the rest of Syria for Assad until 2021 and then rigging an election for a new figurehead. Moscow will be too smart to expand its own ground presence in Syria, and will instead broaden its tacit support for the Iranian-backed militias that already serve as de facto local police forces in western Syria. Maybe it will allow Tehran to split the spoils from the Deir al-Zour oil fields; maybe all that cash will go back to Moscow.”
-- Six senators signed a letter on Wednesday night — including Republicans Tom Cotton, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio and Joni Ernst — urging Trump to reconsider pulling out.
Rubio also retweeted a post from the Russian ambassador. “I found someone who is supportive of the decision to retreat from Syria,” he quipped
-- The day before Trump’s announcement, our Beirut bureau chief, Louisa Loveluck, reported on the Russian government’s vicious disinformation campaign against Syria’s best-known civilian rescue group:
“This isn’t just buzz on the Internet,” one former White Helmet, who was arrested and tortured by Syrian forces this year, told Louisa. “It has real-life consequences. We’re dying for this.”
-- Syria isn’t the only reason the Kremlin is celebrating.
“The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it intends to lift sanctions against the business empire of Oleg V. Deripaska, one of Russia’s most influential oligarchs, after an aggressive lobbying campaign by Mr. Deripaska’s companies,” the New York Times’s Ken Vogel reports. “The decision by the Treasury Department, which had been postponed for months, was both politically and economically sensitive … Mr. Deripaska and his businesses — including the world’s second-largest aluminum company, Rusal — were hit with sanctions in April in retaliation for Russian interference in the election and other hostile acts by Moscow. … The companies responded with a sophisticated multimillion-dollar lobbying and legal campaign seeking to delay and ultimately remove the sanctions in exchange for promises from Mr. Deripaska to give up majority ownership and control of EN+, the holding company that controls Rusal. …
“Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat who has criticized the administration for being soft on Rusal, said the move to lift sanctions amounted to Mr. Trump ‘sliding another big gift under Vladimir Putin’s Christmas tree.’ Saying that the plan ‘appears to be a shell game brokered by a sanctioned Russian bank, VTB Bank, involving one of Putin’s closest buddies,’ Mr. Doggett said it ‘only encourages Putin to pursue his destabilizing activities around the world.’ …
“The administration appeared to take pains to head off criticism that it was letting up on Moscow or Mr. Deripaska. The decision was disclosed on the same day that the Treasury Department announced new sanctions against a former Russian military intelligence officer who it said works for Mr. Deripaska, as well as several Russian intelligence officers and entities linked to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. In a statement justifying the move, Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said that the companies had been punished because of Mr. Deripaska’s ownership and control, ‘not for the conduct of the companies themselves.’”
-- Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) also expressed some skepticism of the deal, which they promised to monitor closely.
-- This comes just days after the Geneva-based World Economic Forum reversed its decision to ban three Kremlin-connected oligarchs — including Deripaska — from its upcoming meeting in Davos, caving to an intense Kremlin campaign that included calls to the Swiss president from the prime minister.
-- Meanwhile, Ukraine’s foreign minister takes to the pages of Politico this morning to plead for more Western support in the face of egregious Russian violations of its sovereignty.
“With a level of contempt and disregard for international law with which the world is sadly all too familiar, Russia has sought to present our captured servicemen as ‘criminals,’” writes Pavlo Klimkin.
“With this latest attack, Putin effectively has his hands around Ukraine’s throat and is tightening his grip.
-- Yet, on what could be remembered as one of the more consequential days of his presidency, Trump himself did not appear publicly.
The president stayed up past midnight, approvingly tweeting praise he received from Laura Ingraham on her show:
He continued to tweet this morning, emphasizing that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) supports his moves.
-- But Rand is in the minority. Without explanation, for example, Trump canceled a scheduled afternoon meeting with retiring Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker after the Tennessee Republican had arrived at the White House.
-- “Over a lunch on Capitol Hill, other GOP senators excoriated Vice President Pence for supporting Trump’s move
HOW IT WENT DOWN:
-- Trump’s decision was made on Tuesday following a small meeting attended only by senior White House aides and the secretaries of defense and state, most of whom, if not all, sharply disagreed with the president.
“A number of close U.S. allies who are members of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State said they were not consulted and were given no prior warning.
“Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not participate in the meeting with Trump and was in the dark until after it took place, according to several people familiar with the situation.
“A State Department official said Wednesday that U.S. diplomats and aid personnel — their numbers already reduced following Trump’s earlier decision to eliminate American aid to reconstruct towns and cities where most of the anti-Islamic State fighting took place — would now be evacuated. Mercy Corps, the international aid organization that provides aid to about half the 2.7 million civilian population in U.S.-controlled eastern Syria, said it would probably have to reconsider its operations there.”
--
-- DeYoung has additional reporting on the Turkish connection:
-- Incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi zeroed in on Turkish influence efforts as she decried Trump’s Syria move.
-- Trump’s decision is a clear rebuke to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
“Trump continues to weigh whether he should keep Mattis in the role and tells advisers in the Oval Office that he doesn’t agree with his defense secretary on much, according to current and former administration officials. He rarely sees Mattis these days and does not speak with him as often as he did earlier in the administration. Mattis, for his part, has told colleagues that he wants to stay.
“Mattis is also frustrated that Trump vetoed his choice to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff … Trump announced this month that he has chosen Gen. Mark A. Milley, the Army’s chief of staff, to replace [Dunford], who is due to step down next fall. Mattis had recommended the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. David L. Goldfein. Trump also sidestepped Mattis’s concern about deploying U.S. forces to the U.S.-Mexico border this fall with only a vague mandate for border security. Mattis is said to be among the strongest skeptics about the pledge of denuclearization that Trump claims he received from Kim Jong Un …
“In the beginning of his presidency, Trump often pointed to the military men he brought into his administration as evidence of his seriousness … But all those retired and current military officers are now gone (former national security advisers Flynn and H.R. McMaster), on the way out (chief of staff John F. Kelly) or, in the case of Mattis, pushed to the sidelines.”
THE GROUND TRUTH:
-- “The Islamic State remains a deadly insurgent force, analysts say, despite Trump’s claim it has been defeated,”
“For many security experts, the depiction of the Islamic State as ‘defeated’ … is not only inaccurate, but is also dangerously misleading. Despite its setbacks, the group maintains a formidable presence in Syria and Iraq, commanding cadres of fanatical, highly trained fighters believed to number in the thousands, including many who went into hiding after the fall of the group’s self-declared caliphate. The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, continues to fiercely defend its remaining strongholds in Syria against relentless attacks by Kurdish and Syrian ground forces and U.S. warplanes. And in Iraq, its scattered cells are waging a guerrilla campaign that is gaining in intensity in three provinces, judging from the number and lethality of the attacks. …
“An abrupt departure of U.S. forces from Syria will almost certainly accelerate the group’s resurgence on both sides of the border, officials and security experts say. Without a significant U.S. military presence — which until now has included personnel who collect intelligence and coordinate airstrikes from forward operating bases — the Islamic State could regain its footing in Syria, and from there, direct terrorist operations inside Iraq, and perhaps elsewhere in the region and beyond. …
“Multiple current and former U.S. intelligence officials echoed the view that the fight against the Islamic State is ‘unfinished.’ For several security experts, the news of the Trump administration’s decision evoked comparisons to the situation in Iraq after U.S. forces left that country in 2011 under a controversial agreement with Iraq’s Shiite-led government. In 2008, U.S. intelligence officials claimed success against the Islamic State in Iraq — the predecessor of the group that became ISIS — declaring that the terrorists had been ‘operationally defeated’ after a years-long campaign that targeted the group’s leaders and drove its followers into hiding. Just three years after the U.S. withdrawal, the Islamic State took control of a third of Iraq, becoming the largest and best-armed terrorist movement of modern times.”
-- Bottom line: Those who don’t learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.
HOW IT’S PLAYING:
-- This morning’s clips — across the mainstream media, the conservative press and overseas — are just as brutal as they were after Trump’s meeting with Putin in Helsinki.
-- WaPo commentary:
-- Elsewhere:
-- Overseas:
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:
-- The Senate passed a short-term government funding bill denying Trump any new money for the border wall.
“The Senate passed the legislation by voice vote late Wednesday, and the House was expected to take it up on Thursday. Congressional leaders said they expected Trump to sign it before the shutdown deadline. But the mercurial president — who just a week ago declared he would be ‘proud’ to shut down the government over the wall funding — did not publicly announce his support for the deal, throwing the outcome into question as Trump’s conservative allies on and off Capitol Hill mounted a furious lobbying campaign to convince the president to reject the deal.”
-- Trump tweeted about the need for a wall this morning, but he didn’t provide clarity on whether he would veto the spending bill:
-- The Trump administration is pursuing a plan to enforce stricter work requirements for food stamp recipients.
GET SMART FAST:
THERE’S A BEAR IN THE WOODS:
-- Special counsel Bob Mueller has formally requested a transcript of Roger Stone’s testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, signaling that prosecutors could be moving to charge him with a crime.
“It is unclear what aspect of Stone’s testimony Mueller is scrutinizing. But Stone has given conflicting accounts about what prompted him to accurately predict during the 2016 race that WikiLeaks was going to unleash material that would hurt Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. In an interview Wednesday, Stone said he had not been notified of Mueller’s request. But he said he is confident that the transcript of his testimony will not provide the special counsel with grounds to charge him. ‘I don’t think any reasonable attorney who looks at it would conclude that I committed perjury, which requires intent and materiality,’ Stone said.”
-- Casting doubt on his independence, Trump’s attorney general nominee, William Barr — who would take charge of overseeing the Mueller probe if confirmed by the Senate — sent an unsolicited memo to the Justice Department in June blasting the scope of Mueller’s probe.
“‘As I understand it, his theory is premised on a novel and legally insupportable reading of the law,’ Mr. Barr wrote. ‘Moreover, in my view, if credited by the Justice Department, it would have grave consequences far beyond the immediate confines of this case and would do lasting damage to the Presidency and to the administration of law within the Executive branch.’ Mr. Barr’s memo is peppered with strongly worded phrases about the peril he sees in Mr. Mueller’s reading of the law, as he understood it. He described Mr. Mueller’s approach as ‘grossly irresponsible’ with ‘potentially disastrous implications’ for the executive branch. He also wrote: ‘Mueller should not be permitted to demand that the President submit to interrogation about alleged obstruction.’”
-- Past sworn statements from the president indicate a solid knowledge of campaign finance law, which could come into play if he is ever prosecuted for his alleged involvement in Michael Cohen’s hush-money payments to Trump’s alleged mistresses.
-- BuzzFeed News won a defamation lawsuit over its publication of the Steele dossier.
-- The District of Columbia's attorney general filed a lawsuit against Facebook for allegedly mishandling user data.
-- During last year’s Alabama Senate race, a group of Democratic tech experts experimented with the disinformation tactics used by Russia in 2016.
-- With an interview of former attorney general Loretta Lynch, the House GOP's controversial investigation into the FBI’s handling of probes into the Trump campaign's alleged dealings with Russia and Hillary Clinton’s private email server appeared to quietly conclude.
-- Looking ahead, the incoming Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee renewed more than 50 requests for information from the Trump administration that were ignored over the past two years.
THE IMMIGRATION WARS:
-- A federal judge struck down Trump administration policies making it more difficult for victims of gang violence and domestic abuse to seek U.S. asylum.
-- Attorneys for the father of a 7-year-old girl who died in the custody of Border Patrol said the pair were not provided water while they were detained.
-- A 5-month-old girl detained by the Border Patrol was hospitalized with pneumonia after her mother said they were held in “freezing” cells.
-- One of Trump's earliest backers signaled she would not vote for him again in 2020 if he doesn't make good on his promise to build a border wall.
ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN:
-- Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke assumed his office as a rising national star. He’s leaving embroiled in scandal, facing five active investigations.
-- Mick Mulvaney intends to give Trump more leeway in his decision-making than John Kelly.
-- “Wilbur Ross said he divested a stock holding — but he didn’t,”
THE REST OF THE AGENDA:
-- The Senate unanimously approved a bill to make lynching a federal hate crime.
-- A Texas judge’s ruling that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional could force Republicans into the awkward position of defending Barack Obama’s signature piece of legislation.
-- A last-minute rush of Obamacare enrollments suggests Americans are undeterred by the ruling.
-- Two U.S. airmen have sued Jim Mattis after they were discharged from the military over their HIV status.
-- The Senate’s approval of a criminal justice bill aimed at reducing mandatory minimum sentences is the culmination of a significant pivot since the GOP championed the “war on drugs.”
-- Paul Ryan delivered his farewell address, emphasizing economic accomplishments while acknowledging unfinished work on several “complex problems.”
2020 WATCH:
-- Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the only senator to support Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary, said he would not defer to Sanders as he weighs a White House bid.
-- Potential 2020 contender Kamala Harris is well known as the only African American woman currently serving in the Senate, but the Indian American community is also eager to claim her.
-- Trump has been telling aides he wants Vice President Pence to stick with him on the 2020 ticket.
-- Recent population shifts could have a major impact on the 2020 presidential race.
-- Four GOP legislators in Kansas have defected to the Democratic Party.
SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:
A Post reporter spotted a metaphor at the DOJ:
A former Trump foreign policy adviser who just spent two weeks in prison for lying to the FBI and who now plans to run for Congress in California posted an update with his wife:
Conservative news outlets expressed frustration with the proposed funding deal:
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), one of the handful of Republicans to praise Trump for pulling out of Syria, celebrated the demise of the Weekly Standard:
A founder of the conservative magazine replied:
A senator who was criticized for a comment about a “public hanging” presided over the passage of an anti-lynching bill, per an NBC News reporter:
One of the bill’s sponsors marked its historic passage:
Donald Trump Jr. offered this message to Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) after she disputed a Politico report:
(Politico said it stood by its reporting.)
An MSNBC host quit Facebook:
The general manager for the Nationals hung out with senators:
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) celebrated the deal that would streamline the entry of Cuban baseball players to the United States:
But one of Flake’s Republican colleagues requested more government scrutiny of the deal:
And Politico’s Capitol bureau chief expressed solidarity with one visitor to the Hill:
A presidential historian remembered this moment between a president and his vice president:
GOOD READS:
-- “Being a boy: Age 17,” by Ellen McCarthy:
-- Bloomberg Businessweek, “The Dallas Mavericks’ New CEO Is Cleaning Up a #MeToo Mess,” by Mary Pilon:
-- GQ, “The Fresno Bee and the War on Local News,” by Zach Baron:
DAYBOOK:
Trump
NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.:
-- Rain will once again return to Washington by midday.
-- The Capitals fell to the Penguins 2-1.
-- The Wizards lost to the Rockets 136-118.
-- Two pedestrians died after they were hit by a tour bus along Pennsylvania Avenue.
-- Environmentalists and many Maryland residents are opposing Gov. Larry Hogan’s proposal to build a Washington Redskins stadium in Oxon Cove Park.
-- The population of D.C. surpassed 700,000 residents for the first time since 1975.
VIDEOS OF THE DAY:
Samantha Bee hosted an immigration-themed holiday special called “Christmas on ICE”:
Seth Meyers mocked Trump’s border wall and his shuttered charity as scams:
Barack Obama surprised a D.C. children’s hospital with gifts:
George H.W. Bush’s service dog, Sully, is moving on to work with veterans at Walter Reed:
And a tiny home stolen from St. Louis was found more than 30 miles away: