A key aide to U.S. President Donald Trump is defending the White House’s handling of spousal abuse allegations leveled against his former staff secretary before he resigned last week.

Presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway told CNN on Sunday that “it’s very clear” that Rob Porter, who helped oversee paperwork and documents being sent to the U.S. leader and helped draft his recent State of the Union address, “did the right thing” by resigning after his two ex-wives offered evidence that he physically abused them during their marriages.

But Conway pushed back on numerous news media reports that chief of staff John Kelly and White House lawyer Donald McGahn knew for months from FBI security background checks about the allegations the women made against Porter but did not act to remove him. Porter’s bid to get a permanent security badge was blocked by the allegations, but he continued to hold his job under an interim clearance.

Conway said she was not privy to the FBI security investigations, but said she had “no reason to not believe the women.” Conway said she was “horrified, very shocked” to learn of the accusations against the Oxford-and Harvard-educated Porter because of her highly professional relations with him inside the White House.

A second White House aide, speechwriter David Sorenson, also abruptly quit Friday after his former wife claimed he was violent and emotionally abusive during their marriage, allegations he adamantly denied, claiming his former wife abused him.

Colbie Holderness, the first of Porter’s two ex-wives, produced a widely published photo of her with a black eye she said she sustained when Porter punched her in the face during a vacation in Italy in 2005. Porter’s second wife, Jennifer Willoughby, obtained a restraining order against him in 2010.

Porter was a key aide to Kelly, a former Marine Corps general. Kelly reportedly told Trump he would be willing to resign in the fallout over his handling of the Porter security investigation.

But Conway said the president assured her ahead of her television interview that he has “full faith” in Kelly’s White House performance and was “not actively searching to replace” him. She quoted Trump as saying that Kelly was “doing a great job.”

In a rare admission of error last week, White House spokesman Raj Shah said “we all could have done better” in handling the Porter case. He said that Trump took the issue of violence against women “very seriously.”

But Trump on Friday never mentioned the women in a statement to reporters, instead wishing Porter a good career in the future.

“He says he’s innocent, and I think you have to remember that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “He said very strongly yesterday that he’s innocent, so you’ll have to talk to him about that.”

On Saturday, Trump took a similar stance, appearing to side with men accused of domestic abuse or sexual misconduct, raising doubts about the #MeToo movement in the United States, in which dozens of prominent men have been fired or forced out of powerful, high profile jobs after women accused them of unwanted sexual advances.

“Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation,” Trump said in a Twitter remark. “Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused — life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?”

While some men have maintained their innocence — including Trump, who has been accused by a dozen women of unwanted sexual advances in the decades before he ran for the presidency — others have admitted to their misbehavior, resigned from their jobs, or have been fired after corporate investigations verified the accusations against them.

 
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s invitation to South Korean President Moon Jae-in to visit Pyongyang could complicate the Trump administration’s diplomatic efforts to pressure the reclusive communist state to abandon its nuclear weapons program, analysts say.

Kim extended the rare invitation to the South Korean leader through his closest confidante: his only sister Kim Yo Jong, who was visiting the South as part of the North Korean delegation to the Winter Olympics, according to South Korea’s presidential office on Saturday.

Moon said he wanted to “create the environment for that to be able to happen,” according to the office.

​Dialogue or pressure or both?

The North Korean diplomatic initiative comes amid growing international pressure, led by the United States, aimed at imposing maximum economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime. Former U.S. officials and analysts say the North Korean move could put Moon, who supports Trump’s pressure campaign while pursuing dialogue with the North, at odds with the Trump administration.

“The invitation is a very clever move by Kim Jong Un to drive a big wedge [between Washington and Seoul]. Kim has been masterful at public relations in regard to the summit and playing on feelings for Korean unity,” said Robert Manning, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

In the past, inter-Korean summits often resulted in a substantial economic aid to Pyongyang. If Moon follows in the footsteps of his predecessors, it would hurt the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the North, according to Ken Gause, director of the International Affairs Group at the Center for Naval Analyses.

“If it leads to promises of aid, then it would definitely undermine the maximum pressure strategy,” Gause said, referring to the proposed summit between the two Koreas.

Bruce Klingner, a former CIA analyst who is now senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, warned Seoul could violate international sanctions by providing economic aid to Pyongyang.

“Moon should realize that offering economic benefits for symbolic North Korean gestures is not only ineffectual but would themselves risk being violations of U.N. resolutions,” Klingner said.

Balancing act

The Moon government has been engaging in a delicate balancing act between Pyongyang and its longtime ally Washington after Kim Jong Un offered to send a delegation to the Olympics in the South. Moon has accommodated the North’s demands on Olympics participation in hopes of persuading Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table to discuss denuclearization, while trying to allay concern in Washington that the North was using a “charm offensive” to simply ease sanctions and earn time to complete its nuclear weapons program. 

The North’s invitation, Manning said, apparently puts Seoul in a difficult position, where it needs to prove its efforts will bear fruit.

“President Moon must balance his desire for North-South reconciliation with his policy of denuclearization,” Manning said.

Dennis Wilder, a Georgetown University assistant professor, who served as National Security Council senior director for East Asian affairs during the George W. Bush administration, suggested Moon should accept the invitation only if Pyongyang agrees to discuss denuclearization with Washington.

“My own view is that President Moon should only go if there is a strong signal from the North of willingness to engage seriously with the Trump administration,” Wilder said.

Joseph DeTrani, former U.S. special envoy for nuclear talks with North Korea, said Moon should make it clear to Kim that he wants to discuss the nuclear and missile issues at the summit. The former envoy believes Moon should use the meeting as an opportunity to push Kim to accept his predecessor’s promise to denuclearize.

Washington unmoved

The latest North Korean diplomatic overture does not appear to have discouraged Washington from pursuing its strategy of pressure.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who led a U.S. delegation to the Olympic Games, told reporters that he and Moon discussed the South Korean leader’s meeting with Kim Jong Un’s sister, adding he remains confident about Seoul’s support for the pressure strategy.

“There is no daylight between the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan on the need to continue to isolate North Korea economically and diplomatically until they abandon their nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” Pence said.
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The U.S. Senate is set to begin an unusual debate on immigration Monday. The debate is unusual because it will begin with a blank slate instead of an actual piece of legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will open discussion with a shell bill that has no immigration provisions in it. Lawmakers will then propose amendments or provisions that will fill up the shell. 

The Kentucky Republican has said the amendment process “will ensure a level playing field at the outset.”

Lawmakers are expected to discuss the fate of immigrant youths now benefiting from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which was implemented during the Obama administration. It has allowed young people who were brought into the country illegally as children to gain temporary protection from deportation and permission to work. Its beneficiaries are often referred to as Dreamers, a name taken from a legislative effort that would have provided similar protections but was not passed.

President Donald Trump rescinded the program last September but gave Congress until March 5 to come up with a legislative replacement.

Senators on Monday are also expected to discuss a proposed border wall, the diversity visa lottery, family sponsorship visas and just about anything else that comes under the heading of immigration reform.

No ‘permanent fix’ seen

So what legislation will come of all this?

Not much, said Alex Nowrasteh, a researcher with the libertarian Cato Institute. Nowrasteh told VOA he did not see a “permanent fix” coming out of Senate after next week’s debate.

“At best, we can hope for a bridge bill, a bill that delays or allows some DACA recipients to extend it for a short period of time in exchange for border security,” he said.

Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, has an even darker view. “As much as my gut is telling me that an ultimate bill could have just border security and a DREAM Act component,” she told VOA, “the White House is really going to be the final determinant in whether or not such bill could go through.”

And President Donald Trump has said that no bill will meet his approval unless it contains his “four pillars”: funding for the border wall, the end of the diversity visa lottery, a switch from family-based immigration to merit-based immigration and a solution for DACA recipients.

McConnell’s decision to have a shell bill on the floor was not made because Congress lacks other options.

Republicans have introduced several bills to try to resolve the immigration impasse, among them the Senate’s RAISE Act and the House’s Secure America’s Future Act — both of which call for comprehensive immigration reform and have Trump’s support.

Nowrasteh said no proposed legislation has a chance of getting the 60 votes needed to pass. He said another bill, the United and Securing America Act introduced in the House, is a “much more modern” approach to immigration. This narrow bill would give DACA recipients a chance to apply for permanent residency in the U.S. while also increasing funds for border security. A companion bill was introduced Tuesday in the Senate — and almost instantly was rejected by Trump.

But Nowrasteh was no more optimistic about these bills: “There’s not going to be a bill that’s passed that resolves this issue.”

‘Really interesting’ week

Debate begins a week before the Senate’s February recess and just a few weeks before March 5, when DACA recipients’ protection will begin to phase out.

It is going to be a “really interesting” week,” Pierce said, noting that the senators’ amendments could have serious consequences for many people. And while almost 700,000 undocumented young people are protected by DACA, many others aren’t.

“The Migration Policy Institute has estimated that there are 3.6 million individuals who are in the United States, who are unauthorized, who were brought back here under the age of 18,” Pierce said. So, any bill, according to Pierce, is going to be addressing a subgroup of that population.

Other factors that concern her are what kinds of benefits might be extended to the young undocumented population.

“Will it be a path to legal status and citizenship or will it simply be an extension of this temporary nonlegal status that they currently hold? … So, in one week of debate, are they really going to be able to solve that issue? I think that’s very much an open question,” Pierce said. 
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The United States has negotiated a deal to resume the deportation of Cambodians, many of whom arrived as refugees, under a controversial resettlement program.

A deal between the two governments under which hundreds of Cambodians had been sent back from the United States since 2002 fell apart last year when Phnom Penh reportedly stopped accepting returnees.

U.S. officials retaliated by placing visa sanctions on Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials in September. On Friday, Cambodian officials succumbed to an offer to lift those bans.

After a meeting between Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Carl C. Risch, visiting assistant U.S. secretary of state for consular affairs, Phat Phanith, director of the International Relations Department, said the pair had agreed to resume the deal.

“Samdech [Sar Kheng] also informed the delegates that Cambodia generally fulfills its obligation to take its citizens, but everything had to be thoroughly discussed,” he said.

“Samdech also asked that the U.S. government increase financial support to Cambodian citizens returning to Cambodia so that they could have a better start in life and successfully integrate into Cambodian society.”

In the past, deportees have been left in a country most have never lived in with no government support, leaving a handful of NGOs to scramble to provide them basic services.

Extortion allegations

The latest agreement came as the deportation program faces renewed scrutiny amid accusations from deportees that Cambodian officials have been using the process to extort bribes in U.S. detention centers.

These accusations, first reported in The Phnom Penh Post, were revealed in a U.S. federal court ruling late last month that barred the Trump administration from repatriating 92 Cambodians until they had a chance to legally challenge their deportation orders.

At a news conference in Phnom Penh on Friday before the deal was reached, Risch said he was unaware of the bribery allegations but hoped Cambodian officials would cooperate in return for lifting the visa sanctions.

“That’s my goal,” he said. “I would like to see the sanctions eventually be lifted and have Cambodia be cooperative in taking back their repatriation cases.”

“What we’re making sure can be done is that there will be a repeatable, dependable uniform process going forward,” he said.

Most Cambodian deportees are sent back after serving jail sentences for felony convictions.

Critics say this is a form of double punishment meted out to refugees already traumatized after fleeing the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime and subsequent turmoil in Cambodia.

When asked Friday whether deporting such individuals in this way was humane, Risch simply reaffirmed his intention to pressure Cambodia into resuming the agreement. The Asian Law Caucus, which has been providing legal support to the deportees, stressed that the people harmed by the program were refugee families who faced permanent separation as a result.

“The latest diplomatic talks don’t change the fact that these detentions and deportations of longtime U.S. residents are unjustified and immoral,” the caucus said in an emailed statement.
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Former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar has been transferred to a high security federal prison in Tucson, Arizona, after being convicted of molesting scores of young women who went to him for treatment, authorities said on Saturday.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons said the 54-year-old Nassar was at the United States Penitentiary, Tucson, which holds about 1,390 male inmates. The bureau’s website listed his release date as March 23, 2069.

After weeks of horrifying testimony from nearly 200 victims about his decades of abuse, Nassar was sentenced on Monday in Michigan to 40 to 125 years in prison.

He had already received a 40-to-175-year sentence in a neighboring Michigan county, and was sentenced to a 60-year federal term for child pornography convictions.

Prosecutors have said there are about 265 known victims in total, including Olympic gold medalists McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman.

The Nassar scandal has prompted multiple investigations into why the U.S. Olympic Committee, the sport’s governing body USA Gymnastics, as well as Michigan State University, where Nassar also worked, failed to investigate complaints about him going back years.

United States Olympic Committee Board of Directors Chairman Larry Probst said on Friday before the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea that the U.S. Olympic system “failed” the hundreds of young female athletes who were sexually abused by Nassar.

The U.S. Olympic Committee has launched an investigation into its own conduct as well as that of USA Gymnastics and U.S. lawmakers are also investigating.
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