NEW YORK: When a White House adviser in the first Trump administration told TV viewers to “Go buy Ivanka stuff,” top government lawyers sprang into action, telling her she had violated ethics rules and warning her not to do it again.
Government ethics experts have varying opinions on whether the 2017 criticism of Kellyanne Conway went far enough, but many agree such violations now might not even draw an official rebuke.
A week after President Donald Trump turned the White House lawn into a Tesla infomercial for Elon Musk’s cars, a second sales pitch by a US official occurred, this time for Tesla stock.
“It will never be this cheap,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday. “Buy Tesla.”
Government ethics experts say Lutnick broke a 1989 law prohibiting federal employees from using “public office for private gain,” later detailed to include a ban on ”endorsements.” Although presidents are generally exempt from government ethics rules, most federal employees are not and are often punished for violations, including rebukes like the one Conway got.
As of Friday, no public action had been taken against Lutnick and it was unclear whether he would suffer a similar fate.
“They’re not even thinking of ethics,” said Trump critic and former Republican White House ethics czar Richard Painter of administration officials.
Painter has equally low expectations of that other possible brake to future violations — public opinion: ”I don’t know if people care.”
In his first term, Trump opened his hotel near the Oval Office to foreign ambassadors and lobbyists in what many legal scholars argued was a violation of a constitutional ban against presidents receiving payments or gifts that could distort public policy for private gain. His company launched a new hotel chain called “America Idea” in hopes of cashing in on his celebrity. Trump even once proposed holding a G-7 meeting of world leaders at his then-struggling Doral golf resort.
The ‘Buy Ivanka’ rebuke
But the reaction to Conway’s “Ivanka stuff” comment suggested certain lines couldn’t be crossed.
Within days of Conway’s TV comments, the head of the federal ethics agency, the Office of Government Ethics, wrote a letter to the White House saying Trump’s adviser may have broken the law and urging a probe. A White House lawyer then met with Conway to remind her of the law and reported to the ethics office that she had assured him she would abide by it in future.
But this time, there is no head of the Office of Government Ethics. He was fired by Trump. Ditto for the inspector generals of various agencies who would head any investigation.
“What is likely to happen now? I really don’t know,” said Kedric Payne, chief lawyer at the Campaign Legal Center, a non-profit watchdog that sent a letter to the government ethics office on Friday calling for an investigation. “We no longer have the head of the Office of Government Ethics to push the Commerce Department to make sure the secretary acknowledges the law.”
Payne said Lutnick’s comment on TV may seem like a small transgression but it could snowball into a bigger problem if not punished.
“It starts with one TV appearance, but can develop into multiple officials asking people to support companies and products,” Payne said. “If there are no consequences, you get into a danger zone of a corruption.”
Trump critics point to other signs that Trump is careless with the law and ethical norms, citing his pardons for Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, a decision to allow his Trump Organization to strike business deals abroad and his attack on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act banning US company bribes abroad to win business.
Jelly beans and airlines
When it comes endorsing products, presidents used to be far more circumspect.
Their comments were mostly quick asides expressing opinions of taste, such as when Harry Truman called Pillsbury flour the “finest” or John F. Kennedy said United Airlines was “reliable.”
Ronald Reagan famously enthused about his jelly beans habit, remarking that they were the “perfect snack.”
Trump had five Teslas lined up in the White House driveway last week as he praised Musk’s company. Then he slipped into a red Model S he had targeted for personal purchase, exclaiming, “Wow. That’s beautiful.”
“Presidents are allowed to have personal opinions on products they like and dislike,” said ethics lawyer Kathleen Clark, referring to the Truman through Reagan examples. ”But what Trump did was transform the White House into a set for advertising the products of a private company.”
“It’s the difference between holding an extravaganza and holding an opinion.”
Calls for Musk investigation
In the aftermath of the Tesla White House event, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and three other senators wrote a letter to the Office of Government Ethics saying that, while presidents are exempt from ethics law banning endorsements, Elon Musk isn’t and calling for an investigation.
A spokeswoman from Warren’s office said the government ethics office had not yet responded about what it planned to do about the White House Tesla endorsement. The Office of Government Ethics itself said it would not comment on either the Warren letter or Lutnick’s TV appearance.
The Commerce Department did not respond to Associated Press requests for comment.
Asked whether Lutnick would be reprimanded or an investigation opened, White House spokesman Kush Desai defended Lutnick, lauding “his immensely successful private sector career” and his “critical role on President Trump’s trade and economic team.”
Former White House ethics chief Painter says Democrats have also played loose with the ethics law.
He is harshly critical of the Clinton charity, the Clinton Foundation, which was taking donations from foreign governments when Hillary Clinton was the country’s chief diplomat as secretary of state. Painter also blasts former President Joe Biden for not removing his name from a University of Pennsylvania research institute when he was in office even though it appeared to be helping draw donations overseas.
But Painter says the slide from caring about ethics laws and norms to defiance has hit a new low.
“There’s been a deterioration in ethics,” he said. “What Biden did wasn’t good, but this is worse.”
Legal experts say Trump official broke law by saying ‘Buy Tesla’ stock but don’t expect a crackdown
https://arab.news/9wftb
Legal experts say Trump official broke law by saying ‘Buy Tesla’ stock but don’t expect a crackdown
- “It will never be this cheap,” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday. “Buy Tesla.”
UK government considering offshore ‘migrant hubs’ for failed asylum seekers
- Potential partner nations include Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and North Macedonia
LONDON: The UK government is exploring the possibility of sending failed asylum seekers, including small boat arrivals, to overseas “migrant hubs,” Sky News reported on Saturday.
A Home Office source told political correspondent Amanda Akass that discussions were in the “very early stages,” with ministers closely examining Italy’s agreement with Albania, where two facilities process asylum seekers offshore.
Government sources also told The Times that potential partner nations include Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and North Macedonia, though officials have not confirmed which countries are under consideration.
“They don’t want to pre-empt any discussions which haven’t even officially begun yet,” according to the report.
The move follows a surge in Channel crossings, with 246 people arriving on Friday and 341 on Thursday, pushing the year’s total past 5,000 — the earliest in the year this milestone has been reached since records began in 2018.
The ruling Labour Party’s offshore processing plan is expected to differ from the previous Conservative government’s Rwanda scheme, which aimed to deport all illegal arrivals but was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court in 2023.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp of the opposition Conservative Party criticized the plan, calling it an admission of failure.
“This is Labour admitting they made a catastrophic mistake in canceling the Rwanda scheme before it even started. The fact they are now looking at offshore processing shows they were wrong to cancel Rwanda before it even started and shows their attempts to ‘smash the gangs’ have failed,” he said.
“In fact, illegal immigrants crossing the channel are up 28 percent since the election and this year has been the worst ever. Labour has lost control of our borders. They should urgently start the Rwanda removals scheme,” he added.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, meanwhile, welcomed the end of the Rwanda scheme but urged faster asylum processing, describing the number of people crossing the Channel so far this year as “really worrying.”
He added: “I’m actually glad that the government scrapped the Rwanda scheme because it wasn’t working as a deterrent. If they’ve got a better scheme that will work, we’ll look at that.”
He added that the previous scheme was ineffective as well as costing huge amounts of money.
“But they’ve also got to do quite a few other things. There’s too many hotels that are being used because people aren’t being processed quickly enough, and Liberal Democrats have argued for a long time that if you process people, you give them the right to work so they can actually contribute. That’s the way you could save a lot of money, and I think taxpayers would support that,” he said.
The UK recently signed an agreement with France to strengthen cooperation against people smuggling, while the government’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill continues its passage through Parliament.
The Home Office was contacted for further comment but has so far failed to respond.
Venezuela agrees to again accept US deportation flights
- Washington deported 238 Venezuelans accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang
- “We have agreed with the US government to resume the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants with a first flight tomorrow,” Venezuelan top negotiator Jorge Rodriguez said
CARACAS: Venezuela announced Saturday it had reached an agreement with Washington to accept additional deportation flights from the United States, one week after more than 200 Venezuelans accused of being gang members were sent to El Salvador.
The flights were suspended last month when US President Donald Trump claimed Venezuela had not lived up to its promises, and Caracas subsequently said it would no longer accept the flights.
But then Washington deported 238 Venezuelans accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang, which Trump has designated a foreign terrorist organization, to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, a move deeply criticized by Caracas.
“In order to ensure the return of our countrymen with the protection of their human rights, we have agreed with the US government to resume the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants with a first flight tomorrow,” Venezuelan top negotiator Jorge Rodriguez said in a statement.
“Migrating is not a crime, and we will not rest until all those who want to return are home, and until we rescue our brothers kidnapped in El Salvador,” said Rodriguez, who is also the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly.
Sunday’s trip will be the fifth flight of migrants arriving in Venezuela since Trump took office in January. Since February, about 900 Venezuelans have been repatriated, most from the United States and some from Mexico.
Last month, Trump revoked permission for oil giant Chevron to operate in Venezuela — a blow to Caracas’s wobbly economy. The Republican president said Maduro had failed to accept deported migrants “at the rapid pace” they agreed to.
The countries broke off diplomatic relations in 2019, during Trump’s first term, after Washington recognized then-opposition leader Juan Guaido as “interim president” following 2018 elections widely rejected as neither free nor fair.
Maduro nevertheless maintained his grip on power, and Joe Biden’s administration relaxed sanctions on Venezuelan oil as part of a deal for American prisoners and a promise to hold free elections. Those promised reforms never came.
Washington did not recognize Maduro’s 2024 reelection win.
There had been glimmers of hope for the relationship at the start of Trump’s new term, with US envoys in Caracas for talks.
Then Trump invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act to target Tren de Aragua, and sparked anger by reaching a deal with Salvadoran leader Nayib Bukele to use the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) outside San Salvador.
And on Friday, the United States said it was revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, including from Venezuela, who had been granted entry under a plan launched by Biden in 2022.
They now have 30 days to leave the country.
Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation campaign in US history and curb immigration, mainly from Latin American nations.
More than seven million Venezuelans have fled Venezuela over the last decade as their country’s oil-rich economy implodes under Maduro.
Family seeks India’s help after scholar detained in US over alleged Gaza support
- Badar Khan Suri is a fellow at Georgetown University, specializing in peace studies
- District court barred US administration from deporting him over political views
NEW DELHI: The family of an Indian scholar at Georgetown University is calling for New Delhi’s intervention after US agents detained him for deportation earlier this week despite a court order against the move.
Badar Khan Suri is an Indian national and a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in Washington, where he is studying and teaching on a student visa.
He was detained by Department of Homeland Security agents outside his home in northern Virginia on Monday.
A DHS assistant secretary said on X that Suri was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” had “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist who is a senior adviser to Hamas,” and that his presence in the US rendered him “deportable.”
Suri is married to a Gazan woman whose father was a political adviser to Palestine’s former prime minister.
“His wife is from Palestine and his father-in-law is a supporter of Gaza and the Palestinian cause. This is the allegation against my son, and for this he has been arrested,” Suri’s father, Shamshad Ali Khan, told Arab News.
“The Indian government should intervene and ensure justice for him. My son has not committed any crime ... Is it a crime to talk about Palestine or get married to a Palestinian?”
Suri’s legal team and Georgetown’s administration have repeatedly denied the DHS claims on mainstream international TV channels, and on Thursday a US district judge in Virginia blocked the US administration’s attempt to deport him.
As of Saturday, he was still in detention.
Suri completed his Ph.D. in peace and conflict studies from Nelson Mandela Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, and was invited to become a fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed bin Talal Center, a part of the university’s School of Foreign Service.
“My son has not committed any crime if he has spoken out for the helpless people of Palestine ... As a researcher in peace and conflict studies, it is his duty to talk about it and provide insight,” Khan said.
“I am proud of my son because he is a lecturer at Georgetown University. He is a brilliant student and scholar ... At the university, people are protesting in favor of my son. The students at the university, the faculty of the university, and even the court are in favor of my son.”
Suri’s father is in contact with his daughter-in-law, who has been seeking assistance of the Indian Embassy in the US.
“My daughter-in-law informed me that she has reached out to the Indian Embassy,” he said.
“I request the Indian government to come forward to help him. The Indian embassy in Washington should come forward and help my son.”
But India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters on Friday that knew about the detention only from the media and said that “when it comes to visa and immigration policy, it is something that lies within the sovereign functions of a country.”
However, top lawyers say that the government has a series of obligations it must fulfill.
“India is obliged, as all nations are, to protect its citizens anywhere in the world, so India must lodge a protest to the US, provide consular services to Mr. Suri and publicly mention that his detention is illegal,” Dushyant Dave, former Supreme Court Bar Association president and senior advocate, told Arab News.
According to another Supreme Court lawyer, Anas Tanveer, even if immigration policy is a sovereign function of the US, it is the duty of the embassy to act.
“The person there is not an illegal immigrant. He is on a scholarship, he is on a valid visa, and unless his conditions of admission and unemployment prohibit him (from expressing dissent) — and I don’t think it is possible in the US — he was very well within his rights,” he said.
“India must provide diplomatic access; India must provide legal help. The embassy must provide that. You can’t remain silent ... These are the principles of the Vienna Convention that every nation is a signatory to.”
Congo M23 rebels say they will withdraw from seized town to support peace push
- The government said it hoped the move would be translated into concrete action
- The Congo River Alliance, which includes M23, said in a statement on Saturday that it had “decided to reposition its forces” from Walikale
CONGO: Rwanda-backed M23 rebels staging an offensive in east Congo said on Saturday they would withdraw forces from the seized town of Walikale in support of peace efforts, having previously said they were leaving troops there as they pushed on to the capital.
The government said it hoped the move would be translated into concrete action, after M23 this week pulled out of planned talks with Congolese authorities at the last minute due to EU sanctions on some of its leaders and Rwandan officials.
It would have been their first direct engagement with Congo’s government after President Felix Tshisekedi reversed his longstanding refusal to speak to the rebels.
The Congo River Alliance, which includes M23, said in a statement on Saturday that it had “decided to reposition its forces” from Walikale and surrounding areas that M23 took control of this week.
This decision was in line with a ceasefire declared in February and in support of peace initiatives, it said in a statement that was greeted with skepticism by army officers.
A senior member of the alliance who did not wish to be named said repositioning meant withdrawing to “give peace a chance.” The source declined to say where M23 rebels would withdraw to.
“We are asking for Walikale and surroundings to remain demilitarised,” the source said. “If the FARDC (Congo’s army) and their allies come back, this means they want to relaunch hostilities.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner told reporters: “We are going to see whether M23 will withdraw from Walikale and whether M23 will give priority to dialogue and peace ... So we hope that this will be translated into concrete action.”
PEACE EFFORTS
Congo’s army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An army officer said he was skeptical about the announced withdrawal. Another officer said M23 was advancing toward Mubi, another town in the area, after the army and pro-government militia bombed Walikale’s airport and cut off some of M23’s road access.
“They now have a provision problem,” said the second officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They will not withdraw. They will move in front of (Walikale) and behind it.”
A M23 officer told Walikale residents on Thursday they were leaving a small group of soldiers there to provide security, while other soldiers “continue all the way to Kinshasa.”
Walikale is the furthest west the rebels have reached in an unprecedented advance that has already overrun eastern Congo’s two largest cities since January.
Its capture put the rebels within 400 km (250 miles) of Kisangani, the country’s fourth-biggest city with a bustling port at the Congo River’s farthest navigable point upstream of the capital Kinshasa, some 1,500 km (930 miles) away.
There have been several attempts to resolve the spiralling conflict, rooted in the fallout from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and competition for mineral riches, including several ceasefires that were violated and regional summits to open up dialogue.
Congo, the United Nations and Western governments say Rwanda has been providing arms and troops to the ethnic Tutsi-led M23. Rwanda denies this, saying its military has been acting in self-defense against Congo’s army and a militia founded by perpetrators of the genocide.
The M23 alliance leader Corneille Naanga on Friday dismissed a joint call for an immediate ceasefire by Congo and Rwanda and reiterated demands for direct talks with Kinshasa, saying it was the only way to resolve the conflict.
3 people killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia despite limited truce
- The dead in Zaporizhzhia were three members of one family
- The bodies of the daughter and father were pulled out from under the rubble while doctors unsuccessfully fought for the mother’s life for more than 10 hours
KYIV: Russia launched a drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, killing three people and wounded 12, Ukrainian officials said Saturday, despite agreeing to a limited ceasefire.
Zaporizhzhia was hit by 12 drones, police said. Regional head Ivan Fedorov said that residential buildings, cars and communal buildings were set on fire in the Friday night attack. Photos showing emergency services scouring the rubble for survivors.
Ukraine and Russia agreed in principle Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after US President Donald Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders, though it remains to be seen what possible targets would be off-limits to attack.
The three sides appeared to hold starkly different views about what the deal covered. While the White House said, “energy and infrastructure” would be part of the agreement, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to “energy infrastructure.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would also like railways and ports to be protected.
The dead in Zaporizhzhia were three members of one family. The bodies of the daughter and father were pulled out from under the rubble while doctors unsuccessfully fought for the mother’s life for more than 10 hours, Fedorov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The Ukrainian air force reported that Russia fired a total of 179 drones and decoys in the latest wave of attacks overnight into Saturday. It said 100 were intercepted and a further 63 lost, likely having been electronically jammed.
Officials in the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions also reported fires breaking out due to the falling debris from intercepted drones.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, said its air defense systems shot down 47 Ukrainian drones.
Local authorities said two people were injured and there was damage to six apartments when a Ukrainian drone hit a high-rise apartment block in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Friday night.
Zelensky told reporters after Wednesday’s call with Trump that Ukraine and US negotiators will discuss technical details related to the partial ceasefire during a meeting in Saudi Arabia on Monday. Russian negotiators are also set to hold separate talks with US officials there.
Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine is open to a full, 30-day ceasefire that Trump has proposed, saying: “We will not be against any format, any steps toward unconditional ceasefire.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a complete ceasefire conditional on a halt of arms supplies to Kyiv and a suspension of Ukraine’s military mobilization — demands rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.
Kremlin spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Saturday that Ukraine was continuing with “treacherous attacks” on energy infrastructure facilities, and that Russia reserved the right to a “symmetrical” response.
Her comments came after Russia accused Ukrainian forces Friday of blowing up a gas metering station near the town of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk region. Ukraine’s military General Staff rejected Moscow’s accusations and blamed the Russian military for shelling the station as part of Russia’s “discrediting campaign.”
