• President Donald Trump appeared with Russian President Vladimir Putin after the two held a one-on-one summit in Helsinki, Finland, on July 17, when the two leaders answered numerous questions from the press. The summit came three days after Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivered 12 indictments of Russian intelligence officers for hacking Democratic agencies and the campaign of presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. When asked if he held Russia accountable for a breakdown in relations between the two countries, President Trump said, “I hold both countries responsible. I think the United States has been foolish. I think we’ve all been foolish.” When pressed over whether he believed U.S. intelligence agencies or Putin regarding the Russian cyber attack and meddling in the 2016 election, Trump mentioned Clinton’s private email server, before saying, “My people came to me, [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coates came to me, and some others, and they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be.” Following the press conference, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) issued a statement, chastising Trump for his actions across the weekend to “undermine NATO and insult our closest allies” and for doing “nothing to hold Putin accountable for his actions.” “You don’t need to be an expert diplomat to know that Russia is our adversary. Russia illegally annexed Crimea and continues to arm separatists in Ukraine. Russia continues to back the murderous Assad regime in Syria. Russia even used chemical weapons to assassinate supposed enemies on foreign soil,” Feinstein stated. “President Trump has to stop kowtowing to Vladimir Putin, and his Republican allies in Washington have to stand up and say enough is enough. Whatever the reason behind President Trump’s cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin, it needs to stop. The president’s actions are undermining our national security.”
• Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) spoke out against the Trump administration’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court at a July 11 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, saying that “Judge Kavanaugh has consistently proven to be a conservative ideologue instead of a mainstream jurist.” Harris also said that a Kavanaugh ruling “disregarded the Supreme Court precedent and opposed the health care rights of a vulnerable young woman. Fortunately, that ruling was overturned by a sitting of all the judges of his court.” Harris also questioned how Kavanaugh would respect current law or court precedent in regard to women’s reproductive rights and the Affordable Care Act individual mandate.
• Gov. Jerry Brown signed a number of bills on July 9, including those authored by local representatives. Brown signed AB 1736, authored by Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham (R-San Luis Obispo), which allows for prior inconsistent statements to be introduced at trial under specific circumstances concerning suspected victims of human trafficking. “I’m proud to have this legislation signed into law and look forward to seeing it used by those supporting the fight to end human trafficking,” Cunningham said in a statement. Brown also signed AB 1794, authored by Assemblymember Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara), into law, effectively removing the Golden State Water Company from the Ojai Basin Groundwater Management Agency board of directors, replacing the position with a resident director chosen by the board. “AB 1794 ensures that the board of directors reflects the new configuration of water suppliers, and helps the new board function smoothly in its mission to preserve and protect the quantity and quality of groundwater in the Ojai Basin,” Limón said in a statement. Brown also signed a bill authored by State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), SB 1089, which clarifies existing law that all protective orders subject to transmittal to the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System be transmitted to the system.
This article appears in Jul 19-26, 2018.