motherjones--2020-10-07--Trump’s Former National Security Adviser Accused Him of Treasonous Conduct. And No One Cared.

In any other time , it would have been front-page news and ignited days or weeks of controversy .
But last week , when a former top government official accused the president , for whom he once worked , of treasonous conduct , the story lasted nanoseconds and was blown away by the never-ending firehose of craziness and disinformation generated by the commander-in-chief and his crew .
The tragedy here is not merely that Donald Trump escaped yet another scandal .
It is that a fundamental and dire threat to the security of the United States did not receive sufficient @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immediate danger .
I am referring to an interview retired General H.R .
McMaster , who served as Trump ’ s national security adviser after Michael Flynn was bounced , gave to MSNBC , in which he said that Trump was acting like a traitor .
This sounds hyperbolic .
But how else to frankly characterize McMaster ’ s remarks ?
He stated that Trump “ is aiding and abetting Putin ’ s efforts ” to intervene in the 2020 presidential contest .
This is a helluva accusation being leveled by a man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ senior national security aide : the president is currently assisting a foreign adversary ’ s covert attack on the United States .
Why did McMaster ’ s accusation not produce a thunderclap that caused the world to stand still for a moment ?
There were articles in the New York Times and elsewhere about his charge .
But the Times relegated the story to page 14 .
That ’ s hardly highlighting the issue .
If you blinked , you easily could have missed this damning comment from McMaster , who noted that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sustained campaign of political subversion against us ” and that this operation was being “ aided by a leader ” —that is , Trump— “ who doesn ’ t acknowledge ” Moscow ’ s assault .
For months , news reports and Democratic members of Congress have noted that Putin , following up on his successful 2016 attack , is once again trying to sabotage an American presidential election to sow discord and help Trump win .
Trump , though , has refused to address this .
In fact , Trump and his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or discounting intelligence showing the Kremlin is attempting to subvert the 2020 election .
After intelligence officials in February told House lawmakers during a classified briefing that Russia was interfering to boost Trump , an irate Trump ousted Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and replaced him with a loyalist ( who was subsequently replaced by another loyalist ) .
Last month , the former intelligence head at the Department of Homeland Security filed a whistleblower complaint claiming that members of the Trump administration pressured him to withhold intelligence assessments detailing Russian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 2020 election “ because it made the president look bad.
” The current director of national intelligence , John Ratcliffe , has tried to restrict the sharing of intelligence on Russia ’ s clandestine endeavor with Congress , and the Trump administration has downplayed Russia ’ s actions , attempting to deflect attention to Iran and China , whose efforts to influence the 2020 election are far less developed and are more indirect .
( Ratcliffe also has been declassifying information to assist the latest Fox disinformation campaign , which claims Hillary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to tie Trump to Russia .
This is nonsense .
There was no secret scheme .
When Moscow targeted the Democrats with a hack-and-leak operation , Clinton ’ s aides publicly raised legitimate questions about Trump ’ s and his adviser ’ s connections to Russia . )
On Tuesday , DHS finally released its delayed annual assessments on threats to the United States—which the whistleblower had claimed had been withheld to protect Trump—and the report stated that “ Russia is the likely primary covert influence actor and purveyor of disinformation and misinformation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interview , Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf insisted that China posed the greater overall threat to the United States Last week , in another little-noticed development , several Democratic senators demanded that Wolf release a document that shows Trump ’ s attacks on mail-in voting are “ consistent with a foreign influence campaign.
” They contended that this unclassified report produced by DHS ’ Office of Intelligence and Analysis “ demonstrates that a foreign actor is attempting to undermine faith in the US electoral system , particularly vote-by-mail systems , in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being used by President Trump , Attorney General Barr , and others.
” They did not say that Russia was the culprit , but that ’ s a good guess .
Democrats in Congress have been trying to sound the alarm about Putin ’ s schemes .
Rep. Adam Schiff ( D-Calif. ) recently subpoenaed DHS for information related to the whistleblower complaint that alleged intelligence on Russia had been smothered .
He also asked the intelligence community to monitor Russian disinformation efforts—particularly those that boost Trump ’ s criticism of mail-in voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t long before the intelligence community started seeing exactly that , ” Schiff said .
“ It was too enticing and predictable an option for the Russians .
They have been amplifying Trump ’ s false attacks on absentee voting.
” On the Senate side , though , there has been little action .
In August , the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee released a massive report that detailed Russia ’ s wide-ranging efforts to secretly help Trump in 2020 .
( The report showed that Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort colluded with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump Jr. tried to collude with a secret Kremlin plot to help Trump , that Trump and his aides sought to exploit the Russia attack while denying it was happening , and that Trump likely lied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller . )
The committee acknowledged Putin was up to it again in 2020 .
But it has taken no public steps to address the Russian threat .
Sen. Ron Wyden ( D-Ore. ) , a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee , tells Mother Jones , “ U.S .
intelligence agencies have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the 2020 election , and yet Republican senators and Donald Trump continue to obstruct any legislation or oversight to respond to the Russian threat .
Republicans have refused to even hold a single oversight hearing in the Intelligence Committee this year on how to respond to Russia ’ s attack on our democracy.
” Not one hearing .
On October 1 , Sen. Chris Murphy ( D-Conn. ) tried to cast the spotlight on this brazen negligence .
He posted a Twitter thread detailing what he called a “ massive coverup campaign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interference operation being run on Trump ’ s behalf.
” Murphy pointed out that in early 2020 intelligence reports started “ coming into Congress about a giant , multi-layer Russian effort to help Trump in 2020 .
Bigger than what they did in 2016 .
Looks like Russians are trying to get U.S. persons – especially those close to Trump – to help.
” In July , he said in this thread , “ Dem leadership [ wrote ] a letter to FBI Director Wray , asking for an all-Congress briefing , especially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suggest Russian agents are trying to find Members of Congress to assist their interference operation.
” But no such briefing came .
Instead , the Trump administration released “ vague ” statements about possible Russian , Chinese , and Iranian intervention—which , Murphy calls , “ very puzzling ” because “ Congress has never been briefed on any meaningful Chinese/Iranian interference plans.
” Murphy also noted that when the Treasury Department in September sanctioned Andriy Derkach , a Ukrainian politician and Russian intelligence officer promoting conspiracy theories about Joe Biden , there was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the FBI or DHS that they ’ ve caught a Russian agent who has been in regular contact with the President ’ s inner circle.
” Derkach had been in touch with Rudy Giuliani , Trump ’ s personal lawyer , who has been trying to collect and spread anti-Biden disinformation .
The Trump administration made no fuss about this move .
“ What ’ s happening is clear , ” Murphy tweeted .
“ American intel agencies , that are supposed to be totally apolitical , have been folded into Trump ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about Russian interference hidden , and overhyping info about China and Iran helping Biden.
” And Murphy finished with this : “ It ’ s why Trump ’ s former National Security Advisor , H.R .
McMaster , said something today that is as shocking as it unsurprising .
He said Trump is ‘ aiding and abetting ’ Putin ’ s interference campaign .
Wow .
But of course he is .
And now you know the details.
” Which brings us back to the general and his demand that Trump call out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ McMaster is currently peddling a book , which focuses on his big thoughts about foreign policy .
It is not a tell-all about his tenure in Trumpland .
But the insight he shared on MSNBC is worth the same sort of attention that was granted to Bob Woodward ’ s revelations about Trump purposefully downplaying COVID-19 .
Here is a former high-ranking Trump official stating that Trump is assisting an attack on the United States because he believes that serves his own political interests .
McMaster ought to be asked more about this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
( He did not respond to an email from me in which I posed several questions , including whether he had made any efforts as national security adviser to persuade Trump to take direct actions to protect the United States from Russian information warfare and how much Trump ’ s “ aiding and abetting ” assists the ongoing Russian operation . )
McMaster ’ s remarks and the GOP-endorsed Senate Intelligence Committee report are a firm rebuttal to the Trumpers ’ long-running shouts of “ no collusion ” and their cries of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump directly conspired with Russian operatives—Donald Trump Jr. attempted to do so and Manafort indeed collaborated with a Russian intelligence officer—it is now ( and has long been ) clear that Trump ’ s great sin in 2016 was providing cover to the Russian operation and taking advantage of it .
McMaster ’ s judgment about Trump ’ s current actions echo what Michael Isikoff and I concluded in our 2018 book , Russian Roulette : The Inside Story of Putin ’ s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s attack on American democracy.
” The Russia story can seem like old news , and Trump and his amen chorus have done all they could in the last four years to discredit and marginalize this historic scandal .
But Putin has again targeted the United States , and Trump is again assisting Putin .
A reunion of treachery is under way .
Meanwhile , Trump ’ s GOP handmaids are doing nothing , as the US political system is endangered by an overseas foe .
McMaster spoke up in one interview @ @ @ @ @ @ @ away , he , other Trump alums , and members of Congress need to do so repeatedly and forcefully for Trump and the GOP ’ s grand act of betrayal to register during a time of chaos and information overload .
Trump is in league with an enemy plotting to infect and undermine a crucial election .
And just as he has not protected the nation from the coronavirus , he has not safeguarded the American nation from Russia ’ s insidious attacks .
As McMaster tells it , there is a turncoat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic , what could be a greater threat to the United States and more deserving of continuous coverage and dread ?

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In any other time, it would have been front-page news and ignited days or weeks of controversy. But last week, when a former top government official accused the president, for whom he once worked, of treasonous conduct, the story lasted nanoseconds and was blown away by the never-ending firehose of craziness and disinformation generated by the commander-in-chief and his crew. The tragedy here is not merely that Donald Trump escaped yet another scandal. It is that a fundamental and dire threat to the security of the United States did not receive sufficient attention and that American democracy remains in immediate danger.
I am referring to an interview retired General H.R. McMaster, who served as Trump’s national security adviser after Michael Flynn was bounced, gave to MSNBC, in which he said that Trump was acting like a traitor. This sounds hyperbolic. But how else to frankly characterize McMaster’s remarks? He stated that Trump “is aiding and abetting Putin’s efforts” to intervene in the 2020 presidential contest. This is a helluva accusation being leveled by a man who once was Trump’s most senior national security aide: the president is currently assisting a foreign adversary’s covert attack on the United States.
Why did McMaster’s accusation not produce a thunderclap that caused the world to stand still for a moment? There were articles in the New York Times and elsewhere about his charge. But the Times relegated the story to page 14. That’s hardly highlighting the issue. If you blinked, you easily could have missed this damning comment from McMaster, who noted that Vladimir Putin was currently mounting a “sustained campaign of political subversion against us” and that this operation was being “aided by a leader”—that is, Trump—“who doesn’t acknowledge” Moscow’s assault.
For months, news reports and Democratic members of Congress have noted that Putin, following up on his successful 2016 attack, is once again trying to sabotage an American presidential election to sow discord and help Trump win. Trump, though, has refused to address this. In fact, Trump and his minions have been blocking, suppressing, or discounting intelligence showing the Kremlin is attempting to subvert the 2020 election.
After intelligence officials in February told House lawmakers during a classified briefing that Russia was interfering to boost Trump, an irate Trump ousted Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and replaced him with a loyalist (who was subsequently replaced by another loyalist). Last month, the former intelligence head at the Department of Homeland Security filed a whistleblower complaint claiming that members of the Trump administration pressured him to withhold intelligence assessments detailing Russian efforts to spread disinformation aimed at influencing the 2020 election “because it made the president look bad.” The current director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, has tried to restrict the sharing of intelligence on Russia’s clandestine endeavor with Congress, and the Trump administration has downplayed Russia’s actions, attempting to deflect attention to Iran and China, whose efforts to influence the 2020 election are far less developed and are more indirect. (Ratcliffe also has been declassifying information to assist the latest Fox disinformation campaign, which claims Hillary Clinton and Obama administration conspired in 2016 to tie Trump to Russia. This is nonsense. There was no secret scheme. When Moscow targeted the Democrats with a hack-and-leak operation, Clinton’s aides publicly raised legitimate questions about Trump’s and his adviser’s connections to Russia.)
On Tuesday, DHS finally released its delayed annual assessments on threats to the United States—which the whistleblower had claimed had been withheld to protect Trump—and the report stated that “Russia is the likely primary covert influence actor and purveyor of disinformation and misinformation within the homeland.” But in an interview, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf insisted that China posed the greater overall threat to the United States
Last week, in another little-noticed development, several Democratic senators demanded that Wolf release a document that shows Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting are “consistent with a foreign influence campaign.” They contended that this unclassified report produced by DHS’ Office of Intelligence and Analysis “demonstrates that a foreign actor is attempting to undermine faith in the US electoral system, particularly vote-by-mail systems, in a manner that is consistent with the rhetoric being used by President Trump, Attorney General Barr, and others.” They did not say that Russia was the culprit, but that’s a good guess.
Democrats in Congress have been trying to sound the alarm about Putin’s schemes. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) recently subpoenaed DHS for information related to the whistleblower complaint that alleged intelligence on Russia had been smothered. He also asked the intelligence community to monitor Russian disinformation efforts—particularly those that boost Trump’s criticism of mail-in voting. “Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the intelligence community started seeing exactly that,” Schiff said. “It was too enticing and predictable an option for the Russians. They have been amplifying Trump’s false attacks on absentee voting.”
On the Senate side, though, there has been little action. In August, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee released a massive report that detailed Russia’s wide-ranging efforts to secretly help Trump in 2020. (The report showed that Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort colluded with a Russian intelligence officer, that Donald Trump Jr. tried to collude with a secret Kremlin plot to help Trump, that Trump and his aides sought to exploit the Russia attack while denying it was happening, and that Trump likely lied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller.) The committee acknowledged Putin was up to it again in 2020. But it has taken no public steps to address the Russian threat. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, tells Mother Jones, “U.S. intelligence agencies have made clear Russia is intent on interfering in the 2020 election, and yet Republican senators and Donald Trump continue to obstruct any legislation or oversight to respond to the Russian threat. Republicans have refused to even hold a single oversight hearing in the Intelligence Committee this year on how to respond to Russia’s attack on our democracy.” Not one hearing.
On October 1, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tried to cast the spotlight on this brazen negligence. He posted a Twitter thread detailing what he called a “massive coverup campaign underway to disguise the octopus-like Russian election interference operation being run on Trump’s behalf.”
Murphy pointed out that in early 2020 intelligence reports started “coming into Congress about a giant, multi-layer Russian effort to help Trump in 2020. Bigger than what they did in 2016. Looks like Russians are trying to get U.S. persons – especially those close to Trump – to help.” In July, he said in this thread, “Dem leadership [wrote] a letter to FBI Director Wray, asking for an all-Congress briefing, especially because the reports we’re reading suggest Russian agents are trying to find Members of Congress to assist their interference operation.” But no such briefing came. Instead, the Trump administration released “vague” statements about possible Russian, Chinese, and Iranian intervention—which, Murphy calls, “very puzzling” because “Congress has never been briefed on any meaningful Chinese/Iranian interference plans.”
Murphy also noted that when the Treasury Department in September sanctioned Andriy Derkach, a Ukrainian politician and Russian intelligence officer promoting conspiracy theories about Joe Biden, there was “no press conference from Intel or the FBI or DHS that they’ve caught a Russian agent who has been in regular contact with the President’s inner circle.” Derkach had been in touch with Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, who has been trying to collect and spread anti-Biden disinformation. The Trump administration made no fuss about this move. “What’s happening is clear,” Murphy tweeted. “American intel agencies, that are supposed to be totally apolitical, have been folded into Trump’s campaign. They are keeping info about Russian interference hidden, and overhyping info about China and Iran helping Biden.” And Murphy finished with this: “It’s why Trump’s former National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster, said something today that is as shocking as it unsurprising. He said Trump is ‘aiding and abetting’ Putin’s interference campaign. Wow. But of course he is. And now you know the details.”
Which brings us back to the general and his demand that Trump call out the Russians for attacking the election. McMaster is currently peddling a book, which focuses on his big thoughts about foreign policy. It is not a tell-all about his tenure in Trumpland. But the insight he shared on MSNBC is worth the same sort of attention that was granted to Bob Woodward’s revelations about Trump purposefully downplaying COVID-19. Here is a former high-ranking Trump official stating that Trump is assisting an attack on the United States because he believes that serves his own political interests. McMaster ought to be asked more about this. And he ought to say more. (He did not respond to an email from me in which I posed several questions, including whether he had made any efforts as national security adviser to persuade Trump to take direct actions to protect the United States from Russian information warfare and how much Trump’s “aiding and abetting” assists the ongoing Russian operation.)
McMaster’s remarks and the GOP-endorsed Senate Intelligence Committee report are a firm rebuttal to the Trumpers’ long-running shouts of “no collusion” and their cries of “hoax!” Whether or not Trump directly conspired with Russian operatives—Donald Trump Jr. attempted to do so and Manafort indeed collaborated with a Russian intelligence officer—it is now (and has long been) clear that Trump’s great sin in 2016 was providing cover to the Russian operation and taking advantage of it. McMaster’s judgment about Trump’s current actions echo what Michael Isikoff and I concluded in our 2018 book, Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump: Trump “had aided and abetted Moscow’s attack on American democracy.”
The Russia story can seem like old news, and Trump and his amen chorus have done all they could in the last four years to discredit and marginalize this historic scandal. But Putin has again targeted the United States, and Trump is again assisting Putin. A reunion of treachery is under way. Meanwhile, Trump’s GOP handmaids are doing nothing, as the US political system is endangered by an overseas foe. McMaster spoke up in one interview. Yet with Election Day only weeks away, he, other Trump alums, and members of Congress need to do so repeatedly and forcefully for Trump and the GOP’s grand act of betrayal to register during a time of chaos and information overload.
Trump is in league with an enemy plotting to infect and undermine a crucial election. And just as he has not protected the nation from the coronavirus, he has not safeguarded the American nation from Russia’s insidious attacks. As McMaster tells it, there is a turncoat in the White House. Other than the pandemic, what could be a greater threat to the United States and more deserving of continuous coverage and dread?


motherjones--2020-10-08--Women in Kenya Are Using Knitting Needles to End Their Pregnancies. Blame Donald Trump.

This story was produced in partnership with Type Investigations .
On a rainy morning in May 2019 , Dr. John Nyamu was attending to patients on the cluttered first floor of an office building in downtown Nairobi when he heard raucous shouts from down the street .
A caravan of protesters was winding toward him , a few hundred people teeming in the streets , bellowing through loudspeakers , and stopping traffic .
As the crowd reached his building , Nyamu , a well-known gynecologist who performs abortions in a private clinic , peered through his window at the protesters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saying .
It turns out they were targeting him .
“ Abortion is murder !
Abortion must go !
Nyamu must go !
” Some held signs with photos of mutilated fetuses .
Others clutched baby-size cardboard coffins with crosses on them .
Such a scene may not surprise Americans , who are familiar with the impassioned debate surrounding abortion .
But Nyamu , who has been providing abortion services in Kenya for nearly 30 years , says these tactics are new to Kenya .
Virulent anti-abortion activity is not more than a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campaign by the Trump administration and ultra-conservative American groups to export Operation Rescue–style tactics to the rest of the world .
Over the past three years , President Trump has decimated funding to family planning groups across sub-Saharan Africa , leaving many fighting to survive .
More quietly , he has also planted far-right ideologues as the heads of federal agencies crafting international policy on the rights of women and bolstered the work of nongovernmental organizations seeking to make abortion illegal worldwide .
Kenya has long had restrictive abortion laws—the procedure is illegal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But Trump ’ s agenda has turbocharged Kenya ’ s nascent anti-abortion movement , which is working to add more limitations to the country ’ s already stringent laws .
This means the stakes in the upcoming US presidential election are high , not only for Americans but also for women and girls around the world , including in Kenya .
Even if the presidency goes to former Vice President Joe Biden , who has pledged to undo Trump ’ s funding cuts on the first day of his presidency , the damage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The impact of the Trump administration ’ s agenda has momentum far beyond Trump himself .
The demonstration outside Nyamu ’ s office had been organized by several groups , including CitizenGO , an ultraconservative group headquartered in Spain but partially financed by US donations , which styles itself as the conservative MoveOn .
Most famous for the 2017 campaign over the terminally ill British child Charlie Gard and transphobic “ free speech buses ” it deployed to at least nine countries including Kenya ( its first target on the African continent ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members worldwide , began as a petition mill but has increasingly mounted IRL events to promote its brand of “ family friendly ” policies .
The African face of CitizenGO is Ann Kioko , a 32-year-old Kenyan with round cheeks , a petite stature , and a deep commitment to religious conservatism .
Kioko recently attended workshops conducted by the American Leadership Institute , a conservative training organization that counts Vice President Mike Pence , Sen. Mitch McConnell ( R-Ky. ) , and Karl Rove among its alumni .
“ CitizenGO works very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says Kioko , who is on the board of Kenya ’ s Conference of Catholic Bishops in addition to being CitizenGO Africa ’ s campaigns director .
“ We are receiving training from them every other year on how to do campaigns , especially political campaigns .
Because the future of the pro-life movement , and this is the goal of CitizenGO right now , is to make sure we elect pro-family people.
” Kioko ’ s American connections don ’ t stop there .
She moderated a conference in the US hosted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rights , an influential Catholic nonprofit known as C-Fam .
It lobbies against abortion and LGBTQ rights , and the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled it a hate group for its demonization of gay people .
In March 2019 , at the invitation of the State Department , Kioko attended the International Women of Courage Award ceremony presided over by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and first lady Melania Trump .
Donning a dress made of Kenyan kitenge fabric , Kioko posed behind the podium onstage for photographs and shook hands with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the world .
“ What I can say about the government right now of the United States is that it is helping African women by defunding these very notorious pro-abortion organizations , ” Kioko tells me .
The anti-abortion movement in Kenya is “ very happy and grateful to the Trump administration right now.
” Trump owes his election in no small part to conservative Christians , and accordingly has empowered anti-abortion groups not just at home but around the world .
In one of his first acts as president , he barred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ US government if they go so far as to share information on abortion , let alone perform them .
The policy , known by critics as the Global Gag Rule , was first enacted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 , and has been rescinded by Democratic presidents and reinstated by Republicans ever since .
But Trump ’ s iteration is the most extreme ever enacted , applying to more than $ 12 billion in funding from international NGOs in its first year , including $ 600 million for health care and family @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rule was initially applied only to family planning grants from the United States Agency for International Development ( USAID ) , but the Trump administration expanded it to include health-related grants from any federal department or agency , including , for the first time , money earmarked for programs addressing HIV/AIDS .
Previous Republican administrations had left those programs—which helped contain a continent-wide public health catastrophe—alone .
The Trump administration also defunded the United Nations Population Fund ( UNFPA ) , which helps countries with reproductive health and family planning .
In 2016 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s third-biggest donor country , giving more than $ 63 million ; starting in 2017 , it gave nothing .
As in the United States , abortion clinics in Kenya do a lot more than help women end pregnancies .
They ’ re full-service reproductive health and family planning organizations , offering cervical cancer screenings and immunizations , contraception , and prenatal and obstetric care .
Making sexual health services widely available and affordable for women would have a huge trickle-down effect in low- and middle-income countries—reducing unintended pregnancies , unsafe abortions , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ according to one study .
But the Gag Rule puts these clinics in a bind : choose to stop offering abortions and even information about abortions performed elsewhere , or lose crucial US government funding and risk shutting down entirely .
The Trump administration ’ s method of choking off funding to reproductive health and family planning organizations to eliminate abortions has left clinics with limited resources and little recourse .
“ First thing was cut off all the money , try to strangle it right away , ” says a former State @ @ @ @ @ @ @ delegation to the UN under three administrations and requested anonymity .
“ ’ Well , then who ’ s going to provide the maternal services ?
Who ’ s going to do the prenatal checkups ?
Who ’ s going to deliver the baby ?
’ And there was clearly , in Washington , no plan .
No thought had been given…No answer , month after month .
No answer because they didn ’ t care.
” As a result , reproductive health groups in Kenya are struggling to survive .
Family Health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s oldest family planning organizations , opted to continue offering abortions .
( All the abortion providers mentioned in this story operate legally . )
The organization had 16 clinics across the country , including one deep in the heart of Kibera , Kenya ’ s largest slum .
Nestled between tin-roofed shanty houses , its peeling , light blue banner advertises discounted , high-quality reproductive health services to the communities no else reaches .
Yet it has lost $ 2.2 million in US support since 2017 , including around $ 640,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ funding cuts have forced it to fire more than 40 of its 180 project and clinical staff members , including some in its Kibera location ; it has closed four clinics since Trump took office and limited its mobile outreach services .
FHOK ’ s director of clinical services estimates that about 76,000 women have missed out on services as a result of the mobile clinics shutting down .
The Kisumu Medical and Education Trust , a network of over 350 health providers focused on expanding access to abortion care , has similarly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 45 percent .
“ We are struggling .
We are like orphans , ” Monica Oguttu , the trust ’ s executive director , told me last year .
“ You lose the funding .
Then the entire system is just completely collapsed because the clinics you are supporting , nobody is funding .
The problem we have is that we don ’ t have partners or foundations that would even match what USAID was giving.
” When I spoke with her again in early 2020 , Oguttu told me she had to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s getting worse , ” she said .
Traffic was gridlocked in Nairobi ’ s city center on November 12 , 2019 , and hotels and restaurants across town were fully booked for the week .
It was the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development ( ICPD ) , a summit on the rights of women and girls convened by UNFPA and the governments of Kenya and Denmark .
Within the grounds of the Kenyatta International Conference Center , some 8,300 doctors , humanitarians , religious leaders @ @ @ @ @ @ @ each other as music floated across the massive , open-air venue , decked out with purple and orange banners .
Not everyone was feeling festive .
While the summit was underway , the US ambassador to Kenya , Kyle McCarter , an evangelical former Illinois state senator and Trump appointee , thundered that the conference was being hijacked by “ pro-abortion groups [ who were ] using it as a vehicle to try and further their agenda.
” During the week of the conference , McCarter penned an op-ed published in at least @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ to bring more diversity of opinion into the conversation.
” This alternate event was a counter-conference organized by CitizenGO , and attended by C-Fam and a handful of other American anti-abortion organizations .
Throughout the week , its attendees gathered across the street from where the ICPD25 was being held , waving plastic dolls covered in fake blood and signs reading “ Africa does not welcome abortion.
” Their competing conference , branded as a pro-family alternative to the ICPD25 , offered discussion panels and screenings of Unplanned , a 2019 film @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turned anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson , who spoke at this year ’ s Republican National Convention .
At the counter-conference , C-Fam ’ s executive vice president , Lisa Correnti , told me , “ It ’ s very clear that there ’ s a real sexual agenda being proposed , and it ’ s being disguised very well under promoting the health and well-being and empowerment of women and girls.
” It was no coincidence that C-Fam executives were in attendance .
C-Fam has been angling for international influence for decades .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ grant from Human Life International , an organization founded by a Catholic priest who believed the pro-choice movement was run by Jews committing a second Holocaust .
C-Fam ’ s current leader , Austin Ruse , a Catholic writer and activist , is only slightly less radical .
Ruse has thick , arching eyebrows , a mop of curly , graying hair , and a penchant for bigotry : In 2014 , he told American Family Radio listeners that the “ hard left , human-hating people that run modern universities ” should “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” prompting a priest on C-Fam ’ s board to resign in protest .
In 2016 , Ruse allied with Iran , Saudi Arabia , and Russia to lobby against a UN proposal to investigate anti-LGBTQ violence , calling the plan a “ major catastrophe ” and a win for “ sexual revolutionaries [ who ] are about to defeat the forces of truth and goodness.
” Ruse is honest about C-Fam ’ s objectives .
“ We were founded and have worked for 23 years to 1 ) block a global right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proper definition of the family , 3 ) stop sexual orientation and gender identity from becoming new categories of nondiscrimination in international law , ” Ruse told me in an email .
“ We have been successful in all three.
” Much of this success has actualized over the past four years .
With Trump ’ s inauguration , C-Fam finally got what it wanted : a place in the official US delegation to the UN .
In March 2017 , the State Department chose Correnti to represent the United States during the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Women , a two-week session that the department described as “ the most important annual meeting on women ’ s issues at the United Nations.
” “ As soon as the Trump administration got in place , C-Fam started calling , having meetings , trying to direct what the administration should do , ” the former State Department official says .
“ And the newly appointed conservatives in the administration were so open , they would take , unquestioningly , without even repackaging , what they got from C-Fam and just deliver @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strategies.
” Ruse maintains that while the Trump administration is “ open and willing to listen to all points of view , ” C-Fam is not the driving force behind the administration ’ s anti-abortion stance .
“ We follow .
We do not lead , ” he says .
But two Trump appointees have been particularly eager to help C-Fam realize its agenda .
During the 2018 Commission on the Status of Women , Bethany Kozma , formerly an adviser at the USAID Office of Gender Equality and Women ’ s Empowerment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s deputy chief of staff , attended a listening session with C-Fam , according to the Guardian .
Kozma and the other American representatives were given talking points , written by C-Fam , which they were told to use while hammering out policy .
The instructions laid out that the delegates should advocate against mentioning “ sexual and reproductive health ” and “ gender ” in UN documents .
Red-haired and stern-faced , Kozma was tapped to work at USAID for the Trump administration after serving in the White House and Department of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When Trump appointed Kozma , C-Fam ’ s Ruse told BuzzFeed News , “ Bethany Kozma is a lovely , sweet woman who just happens to believe that girls with penises just ought not to be showering next to girls without penises , ” referring to an article Kozma wrote for the Daily Signal , a Heritage Foundation publication , in which she advocated against trans kids using the school bathrooms of their choice .
In the piece , Kozma argued that predators could take advantage of the Obama-era bathroom policy to “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evidence that indicates that this would happen at a higher rate with a nondiscrimination law on the books . )
USAID did not respond to multiple requests for comment .
In addition to Kozma , C-Fam has worked closely with Valerie Huber , the special representative of global women ’ s health at the Department of Health and Human Services .
Huber was once the head of Ohio ’ s abstinence education program , which included a curriculum that warns that teenagers who have premarital sex should “ be prepared to die.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ HHS officials to ax its Office of Adolescent Health .
As a member of the administration , she appeared as a special guest at C-Fam ’ s screening of the anti-abortion film Strings Attached , which describes US involvement in African health care as “ ideological colonialism ” and alleges that Marie Stopes , an international organization akin to Planned Parenthood , performs illegal abortions .
C-Fam couldn ’ t be happier about having a direct line to the Trump administration .
President Trump leads “ the most pro-life administration we have ever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an email to me .
“ We have known Bethany Kozma and Valerie Huber for years , long before they joined the administration… [ T ] hey are both great women and true American patriots.
” Kozma and Huber were both official representatives of the American government at the ICPD conference in Nairobi last year .
During the conference , both women crossed the street to also attend the anti-abortion conference .
At one counter-conference panel , Kozma told anti-abortion , faith-based organizations how to successfully apply for USAID grants , walking through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ handed out pamphlets entitled “ Doing Business with USAID , ” which highlighted what is called the New Partnerships Initiative , a program launched in May 2019 to fund local aid organizations that traditionally have not received US funding .
No such presentation was given to the organizations attending the ICPD25 .
On the morning the ICPD conference concluded , the US delegation , including Huber , and McCarter , held a press conference along with delegates from Brazil , Hungary , Libya , Poland , and Uganda to condemn some of its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support references in international documents to ambiguous terms and expressions , such as ‘ sexual and reproductive health and rights , ’ which…may be used to actively promote practices like abortion , ” Huber announced to a room full of reporters .
“ There is no international right to abortion.
” Paradoxically , all of these efforts could mean an increase in abortion—dangerous ones in particular .
During the tenure of President George W. Bush , who also instituted a version of the Gag Rule , abortions , particularly those using unsafe procedures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ African countries .
The same cause and effect is at work today .
A July study in the Lancet found that abortion rates have increased by 12 percent in countries where access to the procedure is restricted , while in countries where it is broadly legal , the rate has declined slightly .
Though data on unsafe abortions in Kenya is not yet available for the past few years , six health care organizations and experts in the country told me they are seeing a spike in unqualified practitioners performing abortions with tools @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as women ingesting traditional herbs , crushed glass , or bleach to terminate pregnancies .
These methods kill an estimated 28 women and girls in Kenya each week ; many more seek treatment for complications such as sepsis or organ failure .
But it ’ s increasingly difficult for clinics to care for women experiencing complications from illegal abortions , due to both funding cuts and rising pressure from anti-abortion groups .
Marie Stopes , the Planned Parenthood-like women ’ s health organization , has been a particularly high-profile target .
In mid-2017 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on social media and launched a petition against the organization , accusing it of promulgating an “ illegal trade of killing babies ” in the country and demanding it be investigated and banned .
A year later , executives from Marie Stopes were called in front of Kenya ’ s Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board , which ordered its clinics to immediately halt the provision of all abortion-related services .
The ban was lifted a month later , but the damage had been done .
Marie Stopes estimates that its post-abortion care services @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attempted to end their own pregnancies , dropped by approximately 10 percent in 2018 , meaning around 6,000 requests for service went unfulfilled in that year alone .
“ Unsafe abortion remains one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in Kenya , so the temporary suspension of our post-abortion care services was an incredibly difficult time for the entire team , ” Sophie Hodder , Marie Stopes Kenya ’ s country director , wrote to me in an email .
“ Preventing these needless deaths is the entire reason we exist.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consequences , the former State Department official says .
“ They not only have access to this research , there are groups that proactively write them letters and tell them , ‘ This is what the research shows.
’ They don ’ t care , ” the official says , because they are ultimately more interested in appealing to their base .
“ It ’ s not their ultimate goal to improve maternal health or to cut out abortions…because if that were their goal , they would look at the research and do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all about political power and promoting this socially conservative agenda so that they ’ ll be able to keep the voters for whom this is a one issue.
” In August of this year , the State Department released its own review of the Gag Rule , which stated that only eight out of 1,340 prime awardees and a “ small portion ” of sub-awardees declined to agree to the policy , and that most “ did not experience a disruption in the delivery of health care or significant delays in implementation.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Type Investigations , an on-background spokesperson from HHS called the State Department review evidence of “ how principled pro-life policies can undergird the provision of quality health care to women and girls around the world .
Women ’ s health—either in quality or quantity—is not being diminished at all by this Policy , ” the spokesperson wrote .
But the fate of 18-year-old Alice , a young woman in Mathare , one of the largest slums in central Nairobi , tells a different story .
In August 2019 , Mary Mugure , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ panicked phone call from Alice ’ s friend , imploring Mugure to come over .
“ When I found her , ” says Mugure , “ she was laying on the floor , a lot of blood was surrounding her .
I thought she has passed out .
But when we called an ambulance to come and take her , that ’ s when the doctor said she ’ s already dead.
” Alice ’ s father had disappeared when she was a child , leaving Alice to care for her ailing mother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ earning money as a sex worker in the slums to help support her family when she was 15 years old .
Alice became pregnant almost immediately and had a son .
Two years later , she became pregnant again .
“ I think she was afraid of talking about the pregnancy since everybody looked upon her [ judgmentally ] , ” says Mugure .
“ So she kept it like a secret .
Only a few friends noticed that she was pregnant.
” Frightened , ashamed , and unprepared to raise another child @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for help .
But because of the Gag Rule , its employees could no longer tell her where to go for a safe abortion .
Instead , Alice paid a small fee to a man who quickly carried out the procedure and sent her home .
Because back-alley abortions are illegal , these practitioners often make women take the tools used for the procedure home , so they can be thrown out along with the fetus far from where it took place .
Mugure says she found a long , sharp knitting needle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Alice ’ s corpse .
A decade ago , Kenya appeared to be embracing a more progressive approach to reproductive rights .
The country adopted a new constitution in 2010 , which allowed abortions in cases where the life or health of the mother is at risk , ending a near-total ban that had been in place for half a century .
In 2019 , Kenya ’ s High Court ruled that women and girls who are raped can receive abortions if doctors determined their physical , mental , or emotional health is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very , very profound ruling , ” says Esther Passaris , a passionately pro-choice member of parliament .
“ The courts were very clear .
The judges were very clear.
” But CitizenGO and the Kenyan politicians allied with them have pledged to roll back the protections in the 2010 constitution .
This summer , Kenya ’ s Senate temporarily suspended a bill that would have strengthened and expanded the existing protections for abortion after months of campaigning and mudslinging by CitizenGO , religious leaders , and conservative politicians .
On Twitter , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the bill , attributing the win to the 20,000 signatures “ presented by CitizenGO to the Senate Speaker and the pressure from pro-life voices in Kenya.
” It concluded : “ United we win !
” Around the same time , President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that he would crack down on private health clinics selling emergency contraceptives to teenagers , which CitizenGO hailed as yet another victory .
Dr. John Nyamu sees these legislative attacks on abortion rights in Kenya as another tactic borrowed by local activists from the American anti-abortion playbook .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ now of doing their work , ” he says .
“ They ’ re targeting legislation so the bills can not go through.
” Yet Nyamu continues to offer legal abortions at his downtown clinic .
He is determined not to give up in the face of rising pressure .
“ We have also to fight for our rights and the rights of the women in Kenya , ” he says .
Passaris says she , along with her fellow likeminded lawmakers and other advocates , plans to keep moving abortion rights in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ require a steady , piecemeal approach .
“ How do you consume an elephant ?
” she asks .
“ One bite at a time .
”

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This story was produced in partnership with Type Investigations.
On a rainy morning in May 2019, Dr. John Nyamu was attending to patients on the cluttered first floor of an office building in downtown Nairobi when he heard raucous shouts from down the street. A caravan of protesters was winding toward him, a few hundred people teeming in the streets, bellowing through loudspeakers, and stopping traffic.
As the crowd reached his building, Nyamu, a well-known gynecologist who performs abortions in a private clinic, peered through his window at the protesters below to make out what they were saying. It turns out they were targeting him. “Abortion is murder! Abortion must go! Nyamu must go!” Some held signs with photos of mutilated fetuses. Others clutched baby-size cardboard coffins with crosses on them.
Such a scene may not surprise Americans, who are familiar with the impassioned debate surrounding abortion. But Nyamu, who has been providing abortion services in Kenya for nearly 30 years, says these tactics are new to Kenya. Virulent anti-abortion activity is not more than a few years old there—the result of a campaign by the Trump administration and ultra-conservative American groups to export Operation Rescue–style tactics to the rest of the world. Over the past three years, President Trump has decimated funding to family planning groups across sub-Saharan Africa, leaving many fighting to survive. More quietly, he has also planted far-right ideologues as the heads of federal agencies crafting international policy on the rights of women and bolstered the work of nongovernmental organizations seeking to make abortion illegal worldwide. Kenya has long had restrictive abortion laws—the procedure is illegal except in a handful of circumstances. But Trump’s agenda has turbocharged Kenya’s nascent anti-abortion movement, which is working to add more limitations to the country’s already stringent laws.
This means the stakes in the upcoming US presidential election are high, not only for Americans but also for women and girls around the world, including in Kenya. Even if the presidency goes to former Vice President Joe Biden, who has pledged to undo Trump’s funding cuts on the first day of his presidency, the damage may not be so easily undone. The impact of the Trump administration’s agenda has momentum far beyond Trump himself.
The demonstration outside Nyamu’s office had been organized by several groups, including CitizenGO, an ultraconservative group headquartered in Spain but partially financed by US donations, which styles itself as the conservative MoveOn. Most famous for the 2017 campaign over the terminally ill British child Charlie Gard and transphobic “free speech buses” it deployed to at least nine countries including Kenya (its first target on the African continent), CitizenGO, which claims 9 million members worldwide, began as a petition mill but has increasingly mounted IRL events to promote its brand of “family friendly” policies.
The African face of CitizenGO is Ann Kioko, a 32-year-old Kenyan with round cheeks, a petite stature, and a deep commitment to religious conservatism. Kioko recently attended workshops conducted by the American Leadership Institute, a conservative training organization that counts Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and Karl Rove among its alumni. “CitizenGO works very closely with the Leadership Institute,” says Kioko, who is on the board of Kenya’s Conference of Catholic Bishops in addition to being CitizenGO Africa’s campaigns director. “We are receiving training from them every other year on how to do campaigns, especially political campaigns. Because the future of the pro-life movement, and this is the goal of CitizenGO right now, is to make sure we elect pro-family people.”
Kioko’s American connections don’t stop there. She moderated a conference in the US hosted by the Center for Family and Human Rights, an influential Catholic nonprofit known as C-Fam. It lobbies against abortion and LGBTQ rights, and the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled it a hate group for its demonization of gay people. In March 2019, at the invitation of the State Department, Kioko attended the International Women of Courage Award ceremony presided over by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and first lady Melania Trump. Donning a dress made of Kenyan kitenge fabric, Kioko posed behind the podium onstage for photographs and shook hands with global women’s activists from around the world.
“What I can say about the government right now of the United States is that it is helping African women by defunding these very notorious pro-abortion organizations,” Kioko tells me. The anti-abortion movement in Kenya is “very happy and grateful to the Trump administration right now.”
Trump owes his election in no small part to conservative Christians, and accordingly has empowered anti-abortion groups not just at home but around the world. In one of his first acts as president, he barred foreign NGOs from receiving funding from the US government if they go so far as to share information on abortion, let alone perform them. The policy, known by critics as the Global Gag Rule, was first enacted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, and has been rescinded by Democratic presidents and reinstated by Republicans ever since.
But Trump’s iteration is the most extreme ever enacted, applying to more than $12 billion in funding from international NGOs in its first year, including $600 million for health care and family planning organizations in Kenya. The Gag Rule was initially applied only to family planning grants from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), but the Trump administration expanded it to include health-related grants from any federal department or agency, including, for the first time, money earmarked for programs addressing HIV/AIDS. Previous Republican administrations had left those programs—which helped contain a continent-wide public health catastrophe—alone. The Trump administration also defunded the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which helps countries with reproductive health and family planning. In 2016, the US government was UNFPA’s third-biggest donor country, giving more than $63 million; starting in 2017, it gave nothing.
As in the United States, abortion clinics in Kenya do a lot more than help women end pregnancies. They’re full-service reproductive health and family planning organizations, offering cervical cancer screenings and immunizations, contraception, and prenatal and obstetric care. Making sexual health services widely available and affordable for women would have a huge trickle-down effect in low- and middle-income countries—reducing unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and maternal deaths by about two-thirds, according to one study. But the Gag Rule puts these clinics in a bind: choose to stop offering abortions and even information about abortions performed elsewhere, or lose crucial US government funding and risk shutting down entirely.
The Trump administration’s method of choking off funding to reproductive health and family planning organizations to eliminate abortions has left clinics with limited resources and little recourse. “First thing was cut off all the money, try to strangle it right away,” says a former State Department official who worked with the US delegation to the UN under three administrations and requested anonymity. “’Well, then who’s going to provide the maternal services? Who’s going to do the prenatal checkups? Who’s going to deliver the baby?’ And there was clearly, in Washington, no plan. No thought had been given…No answer, month after month. No answer because they didn’t care.”
As a result, reproductive health groups in Kenya are struggling to survive. Family Health Options Kenya, one of the country’s oldest family planning organizations, opted to continue offering abortions. (All the abortion providers mentioned in this story operate legally.) The organization had 16 clinics across the country, including one deep in the heart of Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum. Nestled between tin-roofed shanty houses, its peeling, light blue banner advertises discounted, high-quality reproductive health services to the communities no else reaches. Yet it has lost $2.2 million in US support since 2017, including around $640,000 in HIV/AIDS prevention services. Gag Rule funding cuts have forced it to fire more than 40 of its 180 project and clinical staff members, including some in its Kibera location; it has closed four clinics since Trump took office and limited its mobile outreach services. FHOK’s director of clinical services estimates that about 76,000 women have missed out on services as a result of the mobile clinics shutting down.
The Kisumu Medical and Education Trust, a network of over 350 health providers focused on expanding access to abortion care, has similarly lost a significant portion of its funding—some 45 percent. “We are struggling. We are like orphans,” Monica Oguttu, the trust’s executive director, told me last year. “You lose the funding. Then the entire system is just completely collapsed because the clinics you are supporting, nobody is funding. The problem we have is that we don’t have partners or foundations that would even match what USAID was giving.” When I spoke with her again in early 2020, Oguttu told me she had to lay off 10 staff members. “It’s getting worse,” she said.
Traffic was gridlocked in Nairobi’s city center on November 12, 2019, and hotels and restaurants across town were fully booked for the week. It was the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), a summit on the rights of women and girls convened by UNFPA and the governments of Kenya and Denmark.
Within the grounds of the Kenyatta International Conference Center, some 8,300 doctors, humanitarians, religious leaders, feminist activists, and politicians greeted each other as music floated across the massive, open-air venue, decked out with purple and orange banners.
Not everyone was feeling festive. While the summit was underway, the US ambassador to Kenya, Kyle McCarter, an evangelical former Illinois state senator and Trump appointee, thundered that the conference was being hijacked by “pro-abortion groups [who were] using it as a vehicle to try and further their agenda.” During the week of the conference, McCarter penned an op-ed published in at least three Kenyan newspapers announcing an alternate event “to bring more diversity of opinion into the conversation.” This alternate event was a counter-conference organized by CitizenGO, and attended by C-Fam and a handful of other American anti-abortion organizations. Throughout the week, its attendees gathered across the street from where the ICPD25 was being held, waving plastic dolls covered in fake blood and signs reading “Africa does not welcome abortion.” Their competing conference, branded as a pro-family alternative to the ICPD25, offered discussion panels and screenings of Unplanned, a 2019 film about the former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson, who spoke at this year’s Republican National Convention.
At the counter-conference, C-Fam’s executive vice president, Lisa Correnti, told me, “It’s very clear that there’s a real sexual agenda being proposed, and it’s being disguised very well under promoting the health and well-being and empowerment of women and girls.”
It was no coincidence that C-Fam executives were in attendance. C-Fam has been angling for international influence for decades. It was founded in 1997 with a grant from Human Life International, an organization founded by a Catholic priest who believed the pro-choice movement was run by Jews committing a second Holocaust. C-Fam’s current leader, Austin Ruse, a Catholic writer and activist, is only slightly less radical. Ruse has thick, arching eyebrows, a mop of curly, graying hair, and a penchant for bigotry: In 2014, he told American Family Radio listeners that the “hard left, human-hating people that run modern universities” should “all be taken out and shot,” prompting a priest on C-Fam’s board to resign in protest. In 2016, Ruse allied with Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Russia to lobby against a UN proposal to investigate anti-LGBTQ violence, calling the plan a “major catastrophe” and a win for “sexual revolutionaries [who] are about to defeat the forces of truth and goodness.”
Ruse is honest about C-Fam’s objectives. “We were founded and have worked for 23 years to 1) block a global right to abortion, 2) maintain a proper definition of the family, 3) stop sexual orientation and gender identity from becoming new categories of nondiscrimination in international law,” Ruse told me in an email. “We have been successful in all three.”
Much of this success has actualized over the past four years. With Trump’s inauguration, C-Fam finally got what it wanted: a place in the official US delegation to the UN. In March 2017, the State Department chose Correnti to represent the United States during the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women, a two-week session that the department described as “the most important annual meeting on women’s issues at the United Nations.”
“As soon as the Trump administration got in place, C-Fam started calling, having meetings, trying to direct what the administration should do,” the former State Department official says. “And the newly appointed conservatives in the administration were so open, they would take, unquestioningly, without even repackaging, what they got from C-Fam and just deliver it straight to us as our negotiating strategies.”
Ruse maintains that while the Trump administration is “open and willing to listen to all points of view,” C-Fam is not the driving force behind the administration’s anti-abortion stance. “We follow. We do not lead,” he says. But two Trump appointees have been particularly eager to help C-Fam realize its agenda. During the 2018 Commission on the Status of Women, Bethany Kozma, formerly an adviser at the USAID Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment who was recently promoted to USAID’s deputy chief of staff, attended a listening session with C-Fam, according to the Guardian. Kozma and the other American representatives were given talking points, written by C-Fam, which they were told to use while hammering out policy. The instructions laid out that the delegates should advocate against mentioning “sexual and reproductive health” and “gender” in UN documents.
Red-haired and stern-faced, Kozma was tapped to work at USAID for the Trump administration after serving in the White House and Department of Homeland Security during the Bush administration. When Trump appointed Kozma, C-Fam’s Ruse told BuzzFeed News, “Bethany Kozma is a lovely, sweet woman who just happens to believe that girls with penises just ought not to be showering next to girls without penises,” referring to an article Kozma wrote for the Daily Signal, a Heritage Foundation publication, in which she advocated against trans kids using the school bathrooms of their choice. In the piece, Kozma argued that predators could take advantage of the Obama-era bathroom policy to “hurt children.” (There is no evidence that indicates that this would happen at a higher rate with a nondiscrimination law on the books.) USAID did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In addition to Kozma, C-Fam has worked closely with Valerie Huber, the special representative of global women’s health at the Department of Health and Human Services. Huber was once the head of Ohio’s abstinence education program, which included a curriculum that warns that teenagers who have premarital sex should “be prepared to die.” Before her appointment, Huber had lobbied HHS officials to ax its Office of Adolescent Health. As a member of the administration, she appeared as a special guest at C-Fam’s screening of the anti-abortion film Strings Attached, which describes US involvement in African health care as “ideological colonialism” and alleges that Marie Stopes, an international organization akin to Planned Parenthood, performs illegal abortions.
C-Fam couldn’t be happier about having a direct line to the Trump administration. President Trump leads “the most pro-life administration we have ever worked with,” Ruse wrote in an email to me. “We have known Bethany Kozma and Valerie Huber for years, long before they joined the administration…[T]hey are both great women and true American patriots.”
Kozma and Huber were both official representatives of the American government at the ICPD conference in Nairobi last year. During the conference, both women crossed the street to also attend the anti-abortion conference. At one counter-conference panel, Kozma told anti-abortion, faith-based organizations how to successfully apply for USAID grants, walking through the process step by step. She handed out pamphlets entitled “Doing Business with USAID,” which highlighted what is called the New Partnerships Initiative, a program launched in May 2019 to fund local aid organizations that traditionally have not received US funding. No such presentation was given to the organizations attending the ICPD25.
On the morning the ICPD conference concluded, the US delegation, including Huber, and McCarter, held a press conference along with delegates from Brazil, Hungary, Libya, Poland, and Uganda to condemn some of its key priorities: “We do not support references in international documents to ambiguous terms and expressions, such as ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights,’ which…may be used to actively promote practices like abortion,” Huber announced to a room full of reporters. “There is no international right to abortion.”
Paradoxically, all of these efforts could mean an increase in abortion—dangerous ones in particular. During the tenure of President George W. Bush, who also instituted a version of the Gag Rule, abortions, particularly those using unsafe procedures, increased by 40 percent in sub-Saharan African countries.
The same cause and effect is at work today. A July study in the Lancet found that abortion rates have increased by 12 percent in countries where access to the procedure is restricted, while in countries where it is broadly legal, the rate has declined slightly.
Though data on unsafe abortions in Kenya is not yet available for the past few years, six health care organizations and experts in the country told me they are seeing a spike in unqualified practitioners performing abortions with tools such as knitting needles, as well as women ingesting traditional herbs, crushed glass, or bleach to terminate pregnancies. These methods kill an estimated 28 women and girls in Kenya each week; many more seek treatment for complications such as sepsis or organ failure. But it’s increasingly difficult for clinics to care for women experiencing complications from illegal abortions, due to both funding cuts and rising pressure from anti-abortion groups.
Marie Stopes, the Planned Parenthood-like women’s health organization, has been a particularly high-profile target. In mid-2017, CitizenGO began attacking Marie Stopes Kenya on social media and launched a petition against the organization, accusing it of promulgating an “illegal trade of killing babies” in the country and demanding it be investigated and banned. A year later, executives from Marie Stopes were called in front of Kenya’s Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board, which ordered its clinics to immediately halt the provision of all abortion-related services.
The ban was lifted a month later, but the damage had been done. Marie Stopes estimates that its post-abortion care services, which regularly include patients who have attempted to end their own pregnancies, dropped by approximately 10 percent in 2018, meaning around 6,000 requests for service went unfulfilled in that year alone.
“Unsafe abortion remains one of the leading causes of maternal mortality in Kenya, so the temporary suspension of our post-abortion care services was an incredibly difficult time for the entire team,” Sophie Hodder, Marie Stopes Kenya’s country director, wrote to me in an email. “Preventing these needless deaths is the entire reason we exist.”
The Trump administration is aware of the consequences, the former State Department official says. “They not only have access to this research, there are groups that proactively write them letters and tell them, ‘This is what the research shows.’ They don’t care,” the official says, because they are ultimately more interested in appealing to their base. “It’s not their ultimate goal to improve maternal health or to cut out abortions…because if that were their goal, they would look at the research and do the reasonable thing. It’s all about political power and promoting this socially conservative agenda so that they’ll be able to keep the voters for whom this is a one issue.”
In August of this year, the State Department released its own review of the Gag Rule, which stated that only eight out of 1,340 prime awardees and a “small portion” of sub-awardees declined to agree to the policy, and that most “did not experience a disruption in the delivery of health care or significant delays in implementation.” In response to questions from Mother Jones and Type Investigations, an on-background spokesperson from HHS called the State Department review evidence of “how principled pro-life policies can undergird the provision of quality health care to women and girls around the world. Women’s health—either in quality or quantity—is not being diminished at all by this Policy,” the spokesperson wrote.
But the fate of 18-year-old Alice, a young woman in Mathare, one of the largest slums in central Nairobi, tells a different story. In August 2019, Mary Mugure, Alice’s aunt, received a panicked phone call from Alice’s friend, imploring Mugure to come over. “When I found her,” says Mugure, “she was laying on the floor, a lot of blood was surrounding her. I thought she has passed out. But when we called an ambulance to come and take her, that’s when the doctor said she’s already dead.”
Alice’s father had disappeared when she was a child, leaving Alice to care for her ailing mother and three younger siblings. She started earning money as a sex worker in the slums to help support her family when she was 15 years old. Alice became pregnant almost immediately and had a son. Two years later, she became pregnant again. “I think she was afraid of talking about the pregnancy since everybody looked upon her [judgmentally],” says Mugure. “So she kept it like a secret. Only a few friends noticed that she was pregnant.”
Frightened, ashamed, and unprepared to raise another child, Alice went to her usual clinic for help. But because of the Gag Rule, its employees could no longer tell her where to go for a safe abortion. Instead, Alice paid a small fee to a man who quickly carried out the procedure and sent her home. Because back-alley abortions are illegal, these practitioners often make women take the tools used for the procedure home, so they can be thrown out along with the fetus far from where it took place. Mugure says she found a long, sharp knitting needle hidden among the bloody clothing next to Alice’s corpse.
A decade ago, Kenya appeared to be embracing a more progressive approach to reproductive rights. The country adopted a new constitution in 2010, which allowed abortions in cases where the life or health of the mother is at risk, ending a near-total ban that had been in place for half a century. In 2019, Kenya’s High Court ruled that women and girls who are raped can receive abortions if doctors determined their physical, mental, or emotional health is in jeopardy. “It was a very, very profound ruling,” says Esther Passaris, a passionately pro-choice member of parliament. “The courts were very clear. The judges were very clear.”
But CitizenGO and the Kenyan politicians allied with them have pledged to roll back the protections in the 2010 constitution. This summer, Kenya’s Senate temporarily suspended a bill that would have strengthened and expanded the existing protections for abortion after months of campaigning and mudslinging by CitizenGO, religious leaders, and conservative politicians. On Twitter, CitizenGO Africa thanked the Senate for suspending the bill, attributing the win to the 20,000 signatures “presented by CitizenGO to the Senate Speaker and the pressure from pro-life voices in Kenya.” It concluded: “United we win!”
Around the same time, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that he would crack down on private health clinics selling emergency contraceptives to teenagers, which CitizenGO hailed as yet another victory.
Dr. John Nyamu sees these legislative attacks on abortion rights in Kenya as another tactic borrowed by local activists from the American anti-abortion playbook. “That’s a new way now of doing their work,” he says. “They’re targeting legislation so the bills cannot go through.”
Yet Nyamu continues to offer legal abortions at his downtown clinic. He is determined not to give up in the face of rising pressure. “We have also to fight for our rights and the rights of the women in Kenya,” he says.
Passaris says she, along with her fellow likeminded lawmakers and other advocates, plans to keep moving abortion rights in Kenya forward, knowing it will likely require a steady, piecemeal approach.
“How do you consume an elephant?” she asks. “One bite at a time.”


Superspreader in Chief

On January 22 , two days after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States , President Donald @ @ @ @ @ We have it totally under control.
” Since then , we have witnessed the devastating @ @ @ @ @ spin , bluster , and blame his way out of a national emergency that will @ @ @ @ @ scandal of a scandal-plagued presidency .
On the eve of the most important election of @ @ @ @ @ 200,000 Americans have died , more than 7 million have been infected , and the @ @ @ @ @ still getting worse .
And now , an outbreak centered around Trump and his White @ @ @ @ @ how careless and callous his response to the virus has been .
This timeline details @ @ @ @ @ Read from the top , filter the entries , or jump to the past two @ @ @ @ @ regular updates .

Oct 8
🦠 ✨ 💉s
In a rambling call to the Fox Business Network, Trump says he feels “perfect” and thinks he is no longer contagious. “Remember this,” he says, “when you catch it, you get better. And then you’re immune, you know?” He also suggests that he may have gotten the coronavirus from meeting with Gold Star families. “They want to hug me and they want to kiss me. And they do.” • On Fox News, Trump describes Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as the “lockup queen.” • Charges are filed against 13 men who allegedly plotted to kidnap Whitmer. One was alleged to have complained about her locking down gyms, calling her a “tyrant bitch.” • Regeneron stocks continue to surge following Trump’s endorsement. • Azar predicts 100 million doses of vaccine will be available by the end of the year. • The Commission on Presidential Debates says the next debate should be held virtually. After Conley says the president may resume “public engagements” on Saturday, the Trump campaign insists the next face-off be in person. • Pelosi calls for the creation of a congressional panel to review the use of the 25th Amendment.


motherjones--2020-10-09--Men Who Allegedly Plotted to Kidnap Michigan’s Governor Celebrated Violent Far-Right Extremism

On Thursday , 13 men in Michigan and elsewhere were charged by state and federal authorities for allegedly plotting to violently overthrow state governments and kidnap and possibly kill Michigan Gov .
Gretchen Whitmer .
Several had a history of posting far-right memes on social media , including posts in support of Boogaloos , a loose-knit group of armed provocateurs that advocates for a new civil war in the United States , and whose adherents have killed police officers and whose ranks include white supremacists .
Other posts celebrated Kyle Rittenhouse , the 17-year-old facing homicide charges after gunning down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last month .
The FBI charged six individuals with conspiracy to kidnap Gov .
Whitmer , and the state of Michigan separately charged seven others with “ providing support for terrorist acts , ” among other charges .
Brandon Caserta , one of the six described in an FBI affidavit , posted several memes endorsing the deadly shootings by Rittenhouse .
One shows Rittenhouse laughing underneath the text : “ when you ’ ve smoked 3 commies before you can legally smoke cigarettes.
” Another showed a convoluted meme depicting a man stuffing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for how politicians passing gun laws will only embolden Boogaloo extremists .
In an Instagram post from two years ago , Caserta praised Jordan Peterson , a reactionary Canadian psychology professor who in recent years has become an icon among young political right-wingers .
Peterson ’ s ideology is vague and mostly focuses on attacking politically correct language and the use of someone ’ s preferred gender pronouns , but an analysis by the Data & Society Research Institute found that , via YouTube ’ s algorithms , Peterson was a gateway to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ platform has adjusted its algorithms since that research was conducted . )
Caserta ’ s activity on YouTube further suggests his worldview : He subscribed to Project Veritas , an outlet known for pushing right-wing disinformation , and the channel run by Ben Shapiro , also considered by some experts to be a gateway to online radicalization , among others .
Caserta ’ s Facebook likes included one for the page “ Michigan Revolution , ” whose profile photo shows a man dressed in Revolutionary War–era clothing and holding an assault rifle paired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” In his own Facebook videos , Caserta voiced disdain for the police , alluding to being “ robbed ” by them , although it was unclear what he was referring to .
Two of Caserta ’ s charged co-conspirators , Ty Garbin and Adam Fox , were present at an event in which “ attendees discussed plans for assaulting the Michigan State Capitol , countering law enforcement first responders , and using “ Molotov cocktails ” to destroy police vehicles , according to the FBI affidavit .
Another man charged by federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lower profile on social media but “ liked ” dozens of pages on Facebook including tactical equipment and firearms sellers , as well as pro-Trump groups including Turning Points USA and the National Rifle Association .
Other online activity showed Caserta and others in the group floating across various ideologies without a coherent or consistent commitment to any particular one .
But the seven men charged by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel were affiliated with a Michigan-based militia group called Wolverine Watchmen , with the alleged intention of overthrowing the state government .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal charges along with Carseta and Franks , “ said he needed ‘ 200 men ’ to storm the Capitol building in Lansing , Michigan , and take hostages , including the Governor .
Fox explained they would try the Governor of Michigan for “ treason , ” and he said they would execute the plan before the November 2020 elections , ” according to the FBI affidavit .
Caserta , Franks , Garbin , and Fox , along with Barry Croft and Daniel Harris , the FBI said , had also plotted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a civil war .
In the course of their plotting , the six men charged by the Feds reached out to the Wolverine Watchmen , according to Nessel .
Seven Wolverine Watchmen members—Paul Bellar , Shawn Fix , Eric Molitor , Michael Null , William Null , Pete Musico , and Joseph Morrison—were charged by Nessel for “ providing material support for terrorist acts ” and , in Musico and Morrison ’ s case , threatening terrorism , among other charges .
Several of the Wolverine Watchmen maintained social media accounts where they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Beast reported that Eric Molitor also praised Kyle Rittenhouse on his Facebook page , posted about QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories , and shared images in support of the III Percenters , a right-wing militia group .
Musico had a profile on Gab , a “ free speech ” alternative social media site that has been home to white supremacists and anti-Semites .
On it , Musico posted about the unfounded far-right conspiracy that in “ South Africa they are killing White people.
” The FBI said that the six men it charged ( who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entity separate from the Wolverine Watchmen ) first came to its attention after they noticed members of their group “ attempting to obtain the addresses of local law-enforcement officers.
” “ At the time , the FBI interviewed a member of the militia group who was concerned about the group ’ s plans to target and kill police officers , and that person agreed to become a CHS , ” the affidavit read .
The affidavit also reinforces the plotters ’ ties to pro-gun Second Amendment groups .
In it , the FBI @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who the six facing federal charges belong to , including Garbin , met up at a Second Amendment rally in Lansing , Michigan , at the state Capitol in June .
The group , according to the FBI , had talked about storming the statehouse with hundreds of men to abduct Whitmer and take her hostage and try her for “ treason.
” Their plot comes in the wake of President Trump inciting militia groups in April when he tweeted “ LIBERATE MICHIGAN !
” ( along with other states ) when armed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ statehouses for the government to lift lockdown restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus .
At the time , extremists saw the tweets as a call to arms .
At a press conference on Thursday , Gov .
Whitmer called for greater empathy and unity in fighting the coronavirus .
She also denounced violent militia groups and other far-right extremists and laid the blame for the alleged plot against her and state governments squarely at Trump ’ s feet .
She called out his failure to denounce violent white supremacy during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stand back and stand by.
’ Hate groups heard the president ’ s words not as a rebuke , but as a rallying cry .
As a call to action.
” She continued , “ When our leaders meet with , encourage , or fraternize with domestic terrorists , they legitimize their actions , and they are complicit .
When they stoke and contribute to hate speech , they are complicit.
” Sam Van Pykeren , David Corn , and Mark Follman contributed to this story .

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On Thursday, 13 men in Michigan and elsewhere were charged by state and federal authorities for allegedly plotting to violently overthrow state governments and kidnap and possibly kill Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Several had a history of posting far-right memes on social media, including posts in support of Boogaloos, a loose-knit group of armed provocateurs that advocates for a new civil war in the United States, and whose adherents have killed police officers and whose ranks include white supremacists. Other posts celebrated Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old facing homicide charges after gunning down three protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last month.
The FBI charged six individuals with conspiracy to kidnap Gov. Whitmer, and the state of Michigan separately charged seven others with “providing support for terrorist acts,” among other charges. Brandon Caserta, one of the six described in an FBI affidavit, posted several memes endorsing the deadly shootings by Rittenhouse. One shows Rittenhouse laughing underneath the text: “when you’ve smoked 3 commies before you can legally smoke cigarettes.”
Another showed a convoluted meme depicting a man stuffing his foot in a wood chipper—an allegory for how politicians passing gun laws will only embolden Boogaloo extremists.
Some sample content from Brandon Caserta's facebook page. Rittenhouse memes, Boog Memes, AntiCom memes.
Guy is unhinged. This is your brain on facebook: https://t.co/QyJeUBP5ED https://t.co/8KoBWnlrcu pic.twitter.com/Hsz1nJxOIv — Josh Russell (@josh_emerson) October 8, 2020
In an Instagram post from two years ago, Caserta praised Jordan Peterson, a reactionary Canadian psychology professor who in recent years has become an icon among young political right-wingers. Peterson’s ideology is vague and mostly focuses on attacking politically correct language and the use of someone’s preferred gender pronouns, but an analysis by the Data & Society Research Institute found that, via YouTube’s algorithms, Peterson was a gateway to violent far-right extremism. (The video-streaming platform has adjusted its algorithms since that research was conducted.)
Caserta’s activity on YouTube further suggests his worldview: He subscribed to Project Veritas, an outlet known for pushing right-wing disinformation, and the channel run by Ben Shapiro, also considered by some experts to be a gateway to online radicalization, among others. Caserta’s Facebook likes included one for the page “Michigan Revolution,” whose profile photo shows a man dressed in Revolutionary War–era clothing and holding an assault rifle paired with the text “NEW AMERICAN REVOLUTION.”
In his own Facebook videos, Caserta voiced disdain for the police, alluding to being “robbed” by them, although it was unclear what he was referring to.
Two of Caserta’s charged co-conspirators, Ty Garbin and Adam Fox, were present at an event in which “attendees discussed plans for assaulting the Michigan State Capitol, countering law enforcement first responders, and using “Molotov cocktails” to destroy police vehicles, according to the FBI affidavit.
Another man charged by federal authorities, Kaleb Franks, kept a lower profile on social media but “liked” dozens of pages on Facebook including tactical equipment and firearms sellers, as well as pro-Trump groups including Turning Points USA and the National Rifle Association.
Other online activity showed Caserta and others in the group floating across various ideologies without a coherent or consistent commitment to any particular one. But the seven men charged by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel were affiliated with a Michigan-based militia group called Wolverine Watchmen, with the alleged intention of overthrowing the state government.
Fox, one of the six facing federal charges along with Carseta and Franks, “said he needed ‘200 men’ to storm the Capitol building in Lansing, Michigan, and take hostages, including the Governor. Fox explained they would try the Governor of Michigan for “treason,” and he said they would execute the plan before the November 2020 elections,” according to the FBI affidavit.
Caserta, Franks, Garbin, and Fox, along with Barry Croft and Daniel Harris, the FBI said, had also plotted to attack police in hopes of igniting a civil war.
In the course of their plotting, the six men charged by the Feds reached out to the Wolverine Watchmen, according to Nessel. Seven Wolverine Watchmen members—Paul Bellar, Shawn Fix, Eric Molitor, Michael Null, William Null, Pete Musico, and Joseph Morrison—were charged by Nessel for “providing material support for terrorist acts” and, in Musico and Morrison’s case, threatening terrorism, among other charges.
Several of the Wolverine Watchmen maintained social media accounts where they posted far-right conspiracy theories. The Daily Beast reported that Eric Molitor also praised Kyle Rittenhouse on his Facebook page, posted about QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories, and shared images in support of the III Percenters, a right-wing militia group. Musico had a profile on Gab, a “free speech” alternative social media site that has been home to white supremacists and anti-Semites. On it, Musico posted about the unfounded far-right conspiracy that in “South Africa they are killing White people.”
The FBI said that the six men it charged (who appear to be part of an extremist entity separate from the Wolverine Watchmen) first came to its attention after they noticed members of their group “attempting to obtain the addresses of local law-enforcement officers.”
“At the time, the FBI interviewed a member of the militia group who was concerned about the group’s plans to target and kill police officers, and that person agreed to become a CHS,” the affidavit read.
The affidavit also reinforces the plotters’ ties to pro-gun Second Amendment groups. In it, the FBI claims that the leadership of the group who the six facing federal charges belong to, including Garbin, met up at a Second Amendment rally in Lansing, Michigan, at the state Capitol in June.
The group, according to the FBI, had talked about storming the statehouse with hundreds of men to abduct Whitmer and take her hostage and try her for “treason.”
Their plot comes in the wake of President Trump inciting militia groups in April when he tweeted “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” (along with other states) when armed militia members were protesting at and inside statehouses for the government to lift lockdown restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus. At the time, extremists saw the tweets as a call to arms.
At a press conference on Thursday, Gov. Whitmer called for greater empathy and unity in fighting the coronavirus. She also denounced violent militia groups and other far-right extremists and laid the blame for the alleged plot against her and state governments squarely at Trump’s feet. She called out his failure to denounce violent white supremacy during the first presidential debate: “‘Stand back and stand by.’ Hate groups heard the president’s words not as a rebuke, but as a rallying cry. As a call to action.” She continued, “When our leaders meet with, encourage, or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions, and they are complicit. When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit.”
Sam Van Pykeren, David Corn, and Mark Follman contributed to this story.


motherjones--2020-10-08--Elliott Broidy, Former Top Trump Fundraiser, Will Plead Guilty to Violating Foreign Lobbying Law

Elliott Broidy , a former top Republican National Committee fundraiser , has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act , a person familiar with the plea agreement said .
Federal prosecutors in Washington , DC , on Thursday unsealed charges against Broidy , the owner of an investment fund and a defense intelligence company , for illegally lobbying the Trump administration to drop an investigation into the embezzlement and laundering of $ 4.4 billion from a Malaysian state investment fund known as 1MDB .
The single charge against Broidy comes after years of reports that federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ efforts to pursue business in various countries—including Romania , Angola , the United Arab Emirates , and elsewhere—while he was also helping officials from those states gain access to the Trump administration .
Broidy has long maintained that he did not sell his access to Trump to foreign entities seeking favors from the administration .
By pleading guilty , Broidy may have avoided additional federal charges .
Broidy , prosecutors say , agreed to accept an $ 8 million retainer from Jho Low , a Malaysian businessman who allegedly orchestrated the looting of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money through an array of investments , including a Hollywood production company .
According to federal filings and people involved in the scheme , Low hired Broidy as part of a complex plan that also involved Pras Michel , the musician and former member of the Fugees , and Nicki Lum Davis , a GOP fundraiser who also pleaded guilty in August to violating foreign lobbying laws for her role in the scheme .
Broidy in 2017 employed Rick Gates , the former Trump deputy campaign chair who later became a key cooperating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s probe , as a consultant .
Both Gates and Broidy allegedly pressed White House officials in 2017 to arrange for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to play golf with President Donald Trump .
Broidy hoped Najib would use the setting to convince Trump to tell the Justice Department to end its 1MDB investigation , federal filings say .
The round of golf between the men never occurred , though Najib did meet with Trump in September 2017 .
Gates and Michel are not named in the filings , but others involved confirmed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provided prosecutors with information related to the case and is not charged with any wrongdoing in the matter .
Prosecutors also say that Low arranged a May 2017 meeting in China between Broidy , Davis , Michel , and a senior Chinese official , who sought their help advocating for the deportation from the US of Guo Wengui , a billionaire who became a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party after fleeing China in 2014 .
Guo later hired Steve Bannon , Trump ’ s former campaign chief , to help mount @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he says are corrupt .
After the meeting , Broidy , again assisted by Gates , allegedly lobbied the Justice Department to extradite Guo to China , where he faces various charges he claims are politically motivated .
Broidy also contacted Trump administration officials , including Trump himself , about the matter .
Prosecutors say that Broidy ’ s lobbying for Guo ’ s extradition was “ at least in part ” a result of payments he received from Low .
A Broidy spokesperson declined to comment on the charges on Thursday .

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Elliott Broidy, a former top Republican National Committee fundraiser, has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a person familiar with the plea agreement said.
Federal prosecutors in Washington, DC, on Thursday unsealed charges against Broidy, the owner of an investment fund and a defense intelligence company, for illegally lobbying the Trump administration to drop an investigation into the embezzlement and laundering of $4.4 billion from a Malaysian state investment fund known as 1MDB.
The single charge against Broidy comes after years of reports that federal law enforcement was investigating Broidy’s efforts to pursue business in various countries—including Romania, Angola, the United Arab Emirates, and elsewhere—while he was also helping officials from those states gain access to the Trump administration. Broidy has long maintained that he did not sell his access to Trump to foreign entities seeking favors from the administration. By pleading guilty, Broidy may have avoided additional federal charges.
Broidy, prosecutors say, agreed to accept an $8 million retainer from Jho Low, a Malaysian businessman who allegedly orchestrated the looting of the 1MDB fund and then laundered stolen money through an array of investments, including a Hollywood production company. According to federal filings and people involved in the scheme, Low hired Broidy as part of a complex plan that also involved Pras Michel, the musician and former member of the Fugees, and Nicki Lum Davis, a GOP fundraiser who also pleaded guilty in August to violating foreign lobbying laws for her role in the scheme. Broidy in 2017 employed Rick Gates, the former Trump deputy campaign chair who later became a key cooperating witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, as a consultant. Both Gates and Broidy allegedly pressed White House officials in 2017 to arrange for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to play golf with President Donald Trump. Broidy hoped Najib would use the setting to convince Trump to tell the Justice Department to end its 1MDB investigation, federal filings say. The round of golf between the men never occurred, though Najib did meet with Trump in September 2017.
Gates and Michel are not named in the filings, but others involved confirmed their identities. Gates appears to have provided prosecutors with information related to the case and is not charged with any wrongdoing in the matter.
Prosecutors also say that Low arranged a May 2017 meeting in China between Broidy, Davis, Michel, and a senior Chinese official, who sought their help advocating for the deportation from the US of Guo Wengui, a billionaire who became a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party after fleeing China in 2014. Guo later hired Steve Bannon, Trump’s former campaign chief, to help mount a campaign against Chinese leaders, who he says are corrupt. After the meeting, Broidy, again assisted by Gates, allegedly lobbied the Justice Department to extradite Guo to China, where he faces various charges he claims are politically motivated. Broidy also contacted Trump administration officials, including Trump himself, about the matter. Prosecutors say that Broidy’s lobbying for Guo’s extradition was “at least in part” a result of payments he received from Low.
A Broidy spokesperson declined to comment on the charges on Thursday.
Read the charging document: