News Alert: 5 takeaways from wild hearing with controversial FBI agent

View in your browser     5 takeaways from wild hearing with controversial FBI agent Peter Strzok on Thursday faced a fierce public grilling from House Republicans who view the controversial FBI counterintelligence agent as the key to exposing what they say was systemic bias by top government officials against Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. The joint hearing before the House Judiciary and House Oversight and Government Reform committees ran close to 10 hours, with Republicans unleashing on Strzok in what was from the beginning a rancorous, partisan cage match. Here are five key takeaways from Thursday's chaotic hearing           Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for News Alerts     Forward News Alerts     You Might Like       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

Overnight Energy: EPA watchdog won’t drop Pruitt probes | Exxon leaves conservative advocacy group | Lawmakers offer changes to Endangered Species Act

View in your browser     EPA WATCHDOG TO CONTINUE PRUITT PROBES: The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) internal watchdog said Thursday it will carry on with at least five of its ongoing probes involving former Administrator Scott Pruitt. Kentia Elbaum, a spokeswoman for the EPA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG), said Thursday that five closely watched probes that the office has publicly announced involving Pruitt and his close aides will carry on despite Pruitt's resignation last week. The list appears to include all of the known ongoing audits. As for any ongoing criminal investigations involving Pruitt, the OIG doesn't disclose those, so it refused to say if any would continue. But Elbaum said any such probes involving Pruitt will continue as well. "We can say that any criminal investigations that may have existed at the time of Mr. Pruitt's resignation will continue," Elbaum said in a statement. Pruitt left amid more than a dozen investigations by various federal bodies, including the EPA inspector general. The OIG probes are looking into Pruitt's lavish first-class travel, potentially inappropriate raises given to staff, more than $3.5 million in security costs, employees that may have been overpaid and whether Pruitt's office properly preserved email and text messages. Investigators are also continuing to compile a "factual" account of a speech Pruitt gave last year at a National Mining Association event. Lawmakers sought the probe after Politico reported that Pruitt asked the group to push President Trump to pull out of the Paris climate agreement. The office told lawmakers that it is looking into whether Pruitt improperly used his aides for personal tasks like apartment hunting and finding a lotion he likes, although officials have not publicly confirmed the probe. Why it matters: To Democrats, environmentalists and even some of Pruitt's allies, closing out the investigations is important to ensure trust in federal institutions and to confirm or refute the allegations. But since Pruitt's no longer in government, he can't be subject to any administrative punishment, unless it's a criminal charge. Nonetheless, the facts of the cases could dog him in potential future endeavors. Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) introduced an appropriations amendment this week that would block the EPA from implementing any regulations Pruitt helped to write until the OIG probes are complete. Read more.   Happy Thursday! Welcome to Overnight Energy, The Hill's roundup of the latest energy and environment news. Please send tips and comments to Timothy Cama, tcama@thehill.com, and Miranda Green, mgreen@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @Timothy_Cama, @mirandacgreen, @thehill.   EXXON LEAVES ALEC: Exxon Mobil Corp. said it has left the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) following a clash over climate change policy. The nation's largest oil and natural gas company did not say why it let its membership lapse. "We review our memberships on an annual basis and this year have decided to discontinue our membership in ALEC, which expired at the end of June," Exxon Mobil spokesman Scott Silvestri said Thursday. But Exxon Mobil was one of the leading voices against a proposal within ALEC to pressure the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to rescind the policy that allowed it to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The proposal ended up getting scuttled. ALEC has lost numerous major members over its advocacy against climate change policies, including Royal Dutch Shell, Google and Microsoft. Companies like Ford Motor Co., Expedia Group Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Yelp Inc. have recently left as well, without specifically mentioning climate change. "The American Legislative Exchange Council values partnership with ExxonMobil and stakeholders across the business community. Organization government relations strategies change over time, and we have valued ExxonMobil's work and leadership with ALEC on STEM education, among other issues," ALEC spokesman Bill Meierling said. Read more.   WESTERN LAWMAKERS INTRODUCE CHANGES TO ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT: A group of House lawmakers introduced a package of bills on Thursday to overhaul the federal government's process for protecting imperiled plant and animal species. The ambitious legislative package would accomplish numerous longstanding Republican goals for amending the Endangered Species Act (ESA), like making it easier for the government to remove species from the endangered or threatened lists and preventing organizations from suing to try to get species protected. The bills could also incentivize voluntary conservation efforts, let states enter "cooperative agreements" for recovery and prioritize data from local communities in making scientific decisions about conservation. To the GOP, the package represents an opportunity to "modernize" the ESA without sacrificing species protections. "We can all agree that we want to make sure that we have the best interests of the endangered species on all of our minds. But we want to make sure that the science is helping us out, that we're engaging all the assets, from private, public and government sectors," Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, said at a news conference, unveiling the new proposals. While the vast majority of the package's co-sponsors are Republicans, Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) said he supports two of the bills. Other Democrats and conservationists slammed the proposal, saying it threatens the successes of the ESA. "Republicans in Congress are scamming the public as a favor for their corporate supporters, not making serious policy, and there's no reason it should advance any further," Rep. Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), the Natural Resources Committee's top Democrat, said in a statement. Read more.   OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY: Water use among customers of Arizona's Salt River Project is down, despite the persistent drought, AZCentral.com reports. A man has been charged in federal court for allegedly growing marijuana on North Carolina's Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the Associated Press reports. The United Kingdom has agreed to keep the European Union's environmental standards after Brexit, Yahoo Finance reports. Spain's government is pulling back on its deficit reduction targets and blaming oil prices, Bloomberg News reports.   IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Check out Thursday's stories ... - Western lawmakers introduce bills to amend Endangered Species Act - Elon Musk vows to help Flint homes with contaminated water - EPA watchdog to continue Pruitt probes - Ireland becomes first country to divest from fossil fuels - Exxon Mobil leaves conservative advocacy group ALEC - California reaches greenhouse gas reduction goal ahead of schedule - House Dem amendment seeks to ensure Pruitt probes are completed         Did a friend forward you this email? 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Hillicon Valley: DOJ appeals AT&T-Time Warner ruling | FBI agent testifies in heated hearing | Uproar after FCC changes rules on consumer complaints | Broadcom makes bid for another US company | Facebook under fire over conspiracy sites

View in Browser     Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill's newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Follow the cyber team, Olivia Beavers (@olivia_beavers) and Morgan Chalfant (@mchalfant16), and the tech team, Harper Neidig (@hneidig) and Ali Breland (@alibreland).   DOJ APPEALS AT&T-TIME WARNER RULING: The Justice Department on Thursday filed to appeal a federal judge's decision to approve the $85 billion AT&T-Time Warner merger. How we got here: In a massive blow to prosecutors, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said last month that the merger could move forward without any conditions attached. The two companies closed the deal days later. The Justice Department sued to block the deal in November 2017, alleging that the combination would allow AT&T, the largest pay-TV provider in the country, to use Time Warner's stable of popular entertainment offerings to suppress competitors. Among the networks under Time Warner's umbrella are HBO, CNN, TNT and TBS. Prosecutors argued that AT&T could inflate the price of HBO for other content distributors. Leon dismissed their arguments and the economic forecasting they relied upon that showed the merger would raise prices for consumers and hurt competition. Instead he backed AT&T's claims that the merger would allow the companies to marry the telecom giant's trove of consumer data with Time Warner content in order to deliver targeted advertising -- a market that's currently dominated by web giants like Facebook and Google. But last week, critics seized on reports that AT&T was already planning to raise prices on DirecTV Now streaming service. The company said the increase was meant to bring rates in line with the market. The new fight: AT&T said Thursday that it's prepared to keep fighting for the merger. "The Court's decision could hardly have been more thorough, fact-based, and well-reasoned," David McAtee, AT&T's general counsel, said in a statement about Leon's ruling. "While the losing party in litigation always has the right to appeal if it wishes, we are surprised that the DOJ has chosen to do so under these circumstances. We are ready to defend the Court's decision at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals." Looking ahead: The decision was considered a boon for the wave of concentration sweeping the media and telecom industries, but a reversal could embolden the administration's antitrust enforcers. Read more here.   A NEW ELECTION SECURITY REPORT: Democrats on the House Administration Committee on Thursday released a new report on states' preparedness on election security. The report analyzes states' current election infrastructure, the money allotted to them by Congress to make election security upgrades and their plans for election security going forward. It labels the five states that rely exclusively on voting machines that do not produce a paper train that can be audited as among those with the "most serious" vulnerabilities in regards to election security. The report concludes that it will cost substantially more than the $380 million allocated by Congress to secure state voting systems from potential cyber sabotage. "While this money is a useful down payment, we have found that it will cost an additional $1.4 billion over ten years for states to be able to take all the steps required to secure their election systems," the report says. Read more from it here.   FBI AGENT TESTIFIES AS REPUBLICANS CHARGE ANTI-TRUMP BIAS AT THE BUREAU: A controversial FBI counterintelligence agent spent hours testifying before two powerful House committees on Thursday, in what represented a highly contentious affair between Republicans on the committee and Peter Strzok, the official. As of the publication of this newsletter, the hearing is still going on. But in one key moment, Strzok offered a vehement defense of himself and the FBI, as GOP lawmakers stepped up charges that anti-Trump text messages Strzok exchanged with a former lover are evidence of bias at the bureau. The suggestion that Strzok's personal opinions about Trump influenced his decisions at the bureau, he said "deeply corrodes what the FBI is in American society, the effectiveness of their mission, and it is deeply destructive." Catch our live coverage here, and some of the top moments here, here and here.   FRACAS AT THE FCC: The Federal Communications Commission passed a proposal to overhaul the agency's procedures for processing consumer complaints Thursday in a contentious party-line vote. Commissioners clashed over the plan with the Republican majority insisting that the new rules are only clarifying longstanding procedures for filing and responding to complaints. But Democrats at the agency and on Capitol Hill say the change will make the FCC less responsive to informal complaints, and force consumers to go through a formal proceeding to file grievances that costs $225. "This is bonkers," Jessica Rosenworcel, the sole Democrat on the commission, said at the FCC's open meeting Thursday. "No one should be asked to pay $225 for this agency to do its job." The new rules largely focus on formal complaints, making changes intended to streamline the agency's process for adjudicating them. But the new order also eliminates text from existing rules regarding the "Commission's disposition" in handling informal complaints. Read more here.   BROADCOM WON'T GO AWAY QUIETLY: Broadcom is making another run at buying a U.S. tech company just months after President Trump blocked the firm's hostile takeover of Qualcomm. The company announced on Wednesday an all-cash deal to buy CA Technologies, a software firm based in New York City, for $18.9 billion, with CA investors receiving $44.50 per share. The agreement comes in the wake of Trump's order blocking its bid for Qualcomm, citing national security concerns. The administration said it was worried that Broadcom, which was based in Singapore at the time, would hamper efforts to develop next-generation wireless technology. Broadcom, which had tried to vigorously push back on regulators' worries, has since relocated its headquarters to San Jose, Calif. "This transaction represents an important building block as we create one of the world's leading infrastructure technology companies," Broadcom CEO Hock Tan said in a statement. Read more here. Also: Broadcom's shares sink after merger announcement. (The Wall Street Journal)   FACEBOOK FIGHT: A Twitter spat broke out between representatives of Facebook, Infowars founder Alex Jones and reporters from CNN and BuzzFeed after a Wednesday on-the-record briefing with the social media giant's staffers and reporters. The back and forth started in a meeting at Facebook's New York office. CNN reporter Oliver Darcy attended the meeting along with other reporters and Facebook's chief of newsfeed John Hegeman and product manager Sarah Su. Darcy pressed the company on why, despite its effort to push fake news sources off its site, it still played home to Infowars, a site notorious for creating and spreading hoaxes and unsubstantiated conspiracies. Alex Jones jumped in: "CNN & BuzzFeed are pissed off at Facebook because Facebook announced that it supports free speech. Let that sink in," he tweeted. Note: Some say the fiasco could have been have been avoidable for Facebook. Infowars has always posted and perpetuated aggressive conspiracy theories. Facebook is partially responsible for helping bring the long-fringe platform to the mainstream and critics say it is now afraid to confront the beast.   FACEBOOK'S 'TREASON' GOOF: Facebook removed "treason" as an advertising tag on Wednesday after its algorithm automatically labeled 65,000 Russian users as interested in the category, potentially putting them at risk for government retaliation. "Treason was included as a category, given its historical significance. Given it's an illegal activity, we've removed it as an interest category," a Facebook spokesperson told The Guardian. The tag was based on categories Facebook automatically assigns to users based on their behavior on the site. Though Russia does not censor its citizens' internet accessibilities, the tag raises concern among those who fear Russian authorities using such data to track down and repress users labeled with the tag.   FACEBOOK'S MYANMAR TEST: Facebook officials tell The Hill they are making a serious effort to prevent their platform from being used to stir ethnic violence in Myanmar after mounting criticism. Critics have long complained the company failed to take quick action to block hate speech they say incites genocide. Now Facebook says it's working to address these concerns and make sure its platform is no longer used to help spread violence. With human rights groups watching, the situation in Myanmar is becoming a public test of the company's ability to respond quickly in real time to prevent its platform from being hijacked for political or divisive ends. Sara Su, a product manager at Facebook for their News Feed product, spoke to The Hill on Tuesday about a trip she took last month to Myanmar with other high-profile company execs led by public policy vice president Simon Milner. We have the details here.   BIPARTISAN HOUSE INTEL BILL PASSES: The House on Thursday passed legislation authorizing appropriations for intelligence activities for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 in a bipartisan 363-54 vote. In addition to authorizing intelligence-related funding, the legislation increases congressional oversight by requiring the Department of Defense (DOD) and the intelligence community to develop a plan to assess "numerous roles, missions and functions of the Defense Intelligence Agency." The bill aims to improve injury benefits for CIA employees, allocate funds to fight against potential election interference, creates an Infrastructure Security Center within the Department of Energy to coordinate intelligence and increases pay for certain employees in an attempt to improve retention within agencies for "critical cyber missions," according to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Under the legislation, Congress would require the intelligence community to provide reports on investigations into classified leaks, timelines for security clearances, Russian influence on elections and the process used to review information on computer vulnerabilities. While the White House praised the legislation for providing the means to carry out its national security strategy, it expressed concerns about 10 different provisions -- including reporting requirements on classified information and language requiring a policy for minimum insider threat standards -- ahead of the vote. Read more here.   SENATORS PUSH TRUMP ON ZTE: A bipartisan group of senators is urging negotiators on Capitol Hill to retain a provision in the annual defense policy bill that would block President Trump's deal to save Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE. "We strongly oppose the June 2018 deal with ZTE negotiated by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to lift the seven-year ban against the export of U.S. parts and components to ZTE," the senators wrote in a letter Thursday to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees. The letter was signed by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). Read more here.   ON TAP FOR TOMORROW: Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page is expected to testify behind closed doors before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees Friday afternoon.       A LIGHTER TWITTER CLICK: Unprecedented.   NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: Border agent investigated over misuse of government computers. (The New York Times) The White House is making moves to secure the federal supply chain. (Inside Cybersecurity) Kaspersky makes a last-ditch effort to thwart federal ban. (NextGov) Britain demands EU keep sharing intelligence on cybersecurity. (Bloomberg) PayPal letter to deceased customer: 'You should read this notice carefully' (NPR)         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Technology Newsletters     Forward Technology Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2018 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.