Thursday morning news: October 4, 2018

FBI report on Brett Kavanaugh expected soon » The FBI has completed it recently reopened background check of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced last night…

MCCONNELL: There will be plenty of time for members to review and be briefed on the supplemental material before a Friday cloture vote. So I am filing cloture on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination this evening so the process can move forward. 

That clears the way for debate to begin, followed by a final confirmation vote likely over the weekend.

Senate leadership has clarified that lawmakers will not receive a copy of the FBI report. Instead, senators will be allowed to read the papers in a secure room.

Meantime, Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill blasted comments President Trump made about Christine Blasey Ford Tuesday night. 

COLLINS: The president’s comments were just plain wrong. 

GOP Senator Susan Collins of Maine. She’s one of a few critical undecided votes on Kavanaugh’s nomination.

At a campaign rally, President Trump derided Kavanaugh’s accuser for the gaps in her story. 

TRUMP: How did you get home? I don’t remember. How’d you get there? I don’t remember? Where was the place? I don’t remember. How many years ago was it? I don’t know.

But White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the president was only pointing out the facts of the case and has nothing to apologize for.

SANDERS: Every single world has been picked apart. Yet if anybody says anything about the accusations that have been thrown against him, that’s totally off limits and outrageous. 

Also on Wednesday, an ex-boyfriend of Christine Blasey Ford gave a signed statement to senators, saying Ford was not truthful when she testified that she never talked to anyone about how to take a polygraph test. The person—whose name was redacted—said he witnessed Ford coach a close friend on how to take a polygraph test ahead of job interviews with the federal government. 

White House refutes NYT story about Trump fortune » The White House also fired back yesterday against a New York Times report published Tuesday about the Trump family fortune.

The lengthy article details how the Trump family shuffled wealth between patriarch Fred Trump and his children using clever tax avoidance maneuvers. At least one of the examples cited is reportedly drawing the interest of the New York Department of Taxation and Finance.

Sarah Sanders Wednesday called the report a “totally false attack.” 

SANDERS: The allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false and highly defamatory. There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone. 

On Twitter Wednesday, President Trump called the report “a very old, boring and often told hit piece on me.” 

Congressional intern arrested for leaking senators’ personal information » U.S. Capitol Police on Wednesday arrested a congressional intern they believe was responsible for publishing the personal information of at least one GOP senator online.

27-year-old Jackson Cosko has been charged with both federal and local offenses.

He reportedly worked as an unpaid intern for Texas Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. He also worked with several Democratic senators, including Barbara Boxer, Maggie Hassan and Dianne Feinstein.

The home addresses and cell phone numbers of numerous senators appeared online in recent weeks … as some political activists looked to pressure lawmakers into opposing Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

U.S. terminates 1955 treaty with Iran » Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday that the United States is terminating a 1955 treaty with Iran. The so-called Treaty of Amity established economic relations and consular rights.

The announcement followed a UN ruling that ordered the U.S. to lift sanctions on Iran affecting imports of humanitarian goods. Iran challenged the sanctions in the UN Court of Justice, claiming they violated the treaty. 

POMPEO: Iran is attempting to interfere with the United States to take the lawful actions necessary to protect our national security. And Iran is abusing the ICJ for political and propaganda purposes.

Pompeo said the treaty cancellation was 39 years overdue, and that Iran’s claims under the treaty were “absurd.” He added that the ICJ has no jurisdiction in the matter. 

Brunson’s lawyer appeals to high court » Pastor Andrew Brunson is asking Turkey’s highest court to set him free. WORLD Radio’s Kristen Flavin has that story. 

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Andrew Brunson’s lawyer, Ismail Cem Halavurt, said he filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court after the lower courts failed to free Brunson and lift a travel ban against him.

Turkish authorities arrested the North Carolina native in 2016. He remains under house arrest awaiting trial on espionage and terror-related charges, which the State Department say are completely bogus.

In his petition, Halavurt noted the ruling violated Brunson’s freedom, stating, “There is no reasonable or acceptable legal reason for his freedom to be limited in such a way.”

Brunson has lived in Turkey for 23 years. His next hearing is scheduled for October 12th.

Reporting for WORLD Radio, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington. Up next—Sarah Schweinsberg reports on the recent Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel. And Dr. Charles Horton on a big new medical study. This is The World and Everything in It.

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) In this Sept. 6, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh waits to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the third day of his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

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