| Giuliani Allies Spar Over Giving Evidence to House Democrats Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:33 PM PST ![Giuliani Allies Spar Over Giving Evidence to House Democrats]( "Giuliani Allies Spar Over Giving Evidence to House Democrats") (Bloomberg) -- Two indicted associates of Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani are battling over whether more evidence from their New York criminal case should be turned over to congressional Democrats pursuing the president's impeachment, with federal prosecutors joining the fray.Lev Parnas has cultivated an unusually public role in recent weeks, granting national television interviews, giving evidence to Congress and offering to testify at the Senate trial of the president, who was impeached last month on charges including abuse of power. Parnas is doing all this while under indictment for breaking campaign finance law.It's the third time Parnas has sought judicial approval to provide evidence to House impeachment managers. The request was opposed by Parnas's co-defendants, who've kept a lower profile and who said the material could jeopardize their attorney-client privilege, as well as by federal prosecutors.The judge in the case has scheduled a hearing for Jan. 30.Parnas and co-defendant Igor Fruman were involved in the effort by Giuliani, Trump's private lawyer, to dig up political dirt in Ukraine on Joe Biden, one of the president's main political rivals in the coming election. Parnas and Fruman are charged with laundering foreign funds for U.S. political campaigns and masking the source of political contributions. Lawyers for Parnas had signaled his willingness to cooperate with the congressional impeachment inquiry since his arrest.Both pleaded not guilty.Read More: Giuliani Ally Got $1 Million From Ukraine Oligarch's LawyerIn a series of blistering filings on Tuesday, lawyers for the defendants traded accusations and objections. Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Fruman, called Parnas's approach "unacceptable." Parnas's lawyer, Joseph Bondy, shot back that Fruman was trying to avoid his congressional subpoena, "now with Mr. Giuliani aiding in his efforts," without further explanation. Bondy didn't return a call seeking comment on the accusation.It isn't clear exactly what sort of evidence Parnas wants to turn over now, but it is "essential to the committee's ability to corroborate the strength of Mr. Parnas's potential testimony," according to a filing by Bondy. It is described in court papers as material produced for prosecutors by Apple Inc. from Parnas's iCloud account, in response to the government's Oct. 21 subpoena.In their own filing, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said the material included reports created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation using data associated with the account.In a separate filing, Blanche said he believed the material jointly belonged to both defendants and therefore couldn't be turned over without Fruman's permission.The filings were submitted to the judge over the course of the last two weeks but made public by the court only on Tuesday.Earlier: Giuliani Ukraine Allies Arrested With One-Way Flight TicketsThe case is U.S. v. Parnas, 19-cr-725, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).(Updates with hearing)To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Berthelsen in New York at cberthelsen1@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Jeffrey, Joe SchneiderFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| China records first virus death in Beijing as toll passes 100 Posted: 28 Jan 2020 12:31 AM PST  A new strain of virus spreading across China has claimed its first victim in Beijing, officials said on Tuesday, as the death toll climbed to 106, the United States warned citizens against trips to the country and financial markets again recoiled. As concern mounted about the impact of the coronavirus on the world's second-biggest economy, health authorities reported a new surge in cases, while adding that all but six of the dead were from the central city of Wuhan. Although cases of the flu-like virus have appeared in more countries, with Sri Lanka and Cambodia the latest on the list, no fatalities have been reported outside China.
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| British man dies in US immigration detention in Florida Posted: 27 Jan 2020 06:30 PM PST  * Death of man, 39, initially attributed to hanging * UK Foreign Office said to be in touch with man's wifeA British man has died while being held in US immigration detention in Florida, the Guardian has confirmed.The death was first reported by BuzzFeed News, which said the man was 39 years old and that the cause was initially attributed to asphyxiation due to hanging. The incident was reported to have occurred on Saturday last week."Our staff are in contact with the US authorities following the death of a British man in Florida," said a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in London.Foreign Office officials are understood to have been in contact with the deceased man's wife, as US officials investigate the circumstances of the death.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Guardian.In a statement to BuzzFeed, the agency identified the deceased man as Ben James Owen and clarified he had died at the Baker county detention center in Macclenny, Florida. Officials said Owen had entered the US on a temporary visa in July and had been arrested on suspicion of felony aggravated stalking, felony false imprisonment, domestic assault, and violating the conditions of his pre-trial release. The agency said the case remained under investigation.The incident marks the fifth death at a detention centre in the 2020 fiscal year, which begins in October 2019. There were eight deaths in Ice detention in the 2019 fiscal year.The immigration detention population in the United States has soared under the Trump administration. Last year Ice detained 510,854 people, compared with 396,448 in 2018. The administration has also increased its use of detention facilities, mostly run by private security companies, with a new concentration of detention centres opening in the deep south.Medical provision and mental health care at detention facilities has come under increased criticism under the Trump administration after a spate of high profile deaths since 2017.At the end of last year House Democrats on the oversight and reform committee launched an inquiry to investigate a "troubling pattern of abuse and poor treatment" of migrants in custody.
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