Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/490267
ByMatthewDaly The Associated Press WASHINGTON Two high- ranking Republican sena- tors criticized Hillary Clin- ton's use of a personal email server, and one said Clinton likely violated federal law. Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said Thursday he wants the State Depart- ment's inspector general to investigate whether Clinton violated federal law or pol- icy. Cornyn said in a letter to Inspector General Steve Linick that Clinton's use of a private server meant that her emails "remained be- yond the reach of congres- sional investigations, the Freedom of Information Act and the (State) depart- ment's record-keeping prac- tices for six years." Iowa Sen. Charles Grass- ley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Clinton made a "great big mistake" by using a private emailaccountforpublicbusi- ness while she was secretary of state. Grassley told News- max TV this week that the use of a private server "prob- ably violates the Freedom of Information Act, it proba- bly violates national security legislation and it really hurts congressional oversight." Clinton used a private emailaccountandserverdur- ing her four-year tenure as secretaryofstate.Her lawyer told a House committee in- vestigating the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that all emails on the server were permanently deleted. Clinton faces a Friday deadline to turn over the server,butlawyerDavidKen- dall told the chairman of the Benghazi panel that doing so would be pointless, since "no emails ... reside on the server or on any backup systems as- sociated with the server." HILLARY CLINTON Senator: Emails 'probably' broke law By Nataliya Vasilyeva and Lynn Berry The Associated Press MOSCOW Russia vowed Thursday to continue searching a vast area of the frigid Sea of Okhotsk for 13 people missing after a fish- ing trawler sank, killing at least 56 of the 132 people onboard. Another 63 were found alive in the icy waters off the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East, but the likelihood of finding other survivors appeared tiny, given the harsh conditions. Russia's Investigative Committee has begun a probe into possible charges over safety violations in the early Thursday sinking of the Dalny Vostok, which went down in only about 15 minutes. The emergencies min- istry said the area being searched spanned about 3,500 square miles. Rescued crew members reported that the ship was unstable because of empty fuel tanks and a lack of ballast, and tipped over when a fishing net weigh- ing 80 tons was pulled in, said Oleg Kozhemyako, act- ing governor of the nearby Sakhalin region. Kozhemyako's comments on Russian television came after the federal Investi- gative Committee said it was considering all pos- sible causes of the sink- ing, including the 330-foot trawler hitting an object floating in the sea, possi- bly drifting ice. Those saved had man- aged to get into lifeboats and some had put on wet suits, rescue workers said. The Dalny Vostok sank at about 4 a.m. local time. It didn't send a distress sig- nal. Video of the rescue op- eration broadcast on state television showed clear skies and relatively calm seas. The water tempera- ture was near freezing. Among the people on board, 78 were from Rus- sia, 42 from Myanmar and the rest were from Latvia, Ukraine and Vanuatu. Pyotr Osichansky, presi- dent of the Far Eastern As- sociation of Sea Captains, told Russian television that when the trawler last docked in Russia, in Jan- uary, it had fewer than 70 crew members. The addi- tional crew members were most likely picked up in Pu- san, South Korea, and were working illegally, he said. The Dalny Vostok, which was built in 1989, was equipped to freeze and can fish. About 26 fishing boats and 1,300 fishermen and emergency workers were taking part in the rescue operation, scouring the wa- ter for survivors and bod- ies even after darkness fell, said Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puch- kov. The fishing boats have recovered 56 bodies so far. The Interfax news agency quoted a local emergency services representative as saying two of the bodies were found Thursday eve- ning — one in a lifeboat 65 miles away and the other in the waters nearby. A Mi-8 helicopter with rescue workers and doc- tors was deployed to deliver medical help and transport crew members to hospitals in the city of Magadan. The Emergencies Ministry also set up a telephone hotline for families of the crew. RUSSIA Trawler sinks quickly in icy water, at least 56 dead MARITIMEBULLETIN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A freezer trawler Stende is seen in an undisclosed port in the Canary Islands. The ship was later sold to Russia, where it was given a new name, Dalny Vostok. By Eric Tucker The Associated Press WASHINGTON The federal indictment against New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez turns in part on prosecu- tors' ability to show that the lavish gifts and politi- cal favors at the center of the case amount to outright bribery rather than reflec- tions of a decades-long friendship between the lawmaker and the donor. That burden of proof is among the issues that make public corruption cases more complicated for the government than they would appear from a one- sided indictment. "It relies very heavily on quid pro quo — giving this official action for that thing of value. It's not a fuzzy relationship, it's not an iffy relationship," said Robert Walker, a former Justice Department cor- ruption prosecutor who also served as chief coun- sel for the House and Sen- ate ethics committees. "It can be difficult to prove quid pro quo." A second potential hurdle for prosecutors is a protec- tion the Constitution gives members of Congress for their legislative acts. An indictment issued Wednesday in Newark charges Menendez with ac- cepting a series of gifts, in- cluding round-trip flights aboard a luxury jet and a Paris vacation, from Salo- mon Melgen, a wealthy Flor- ida eye doctor, political do- nor and friend of more than two decades. Prosecutors ac- cuse Menendez, in exchange for gifts and campaign con- tributions, of acting to ad- vance Melgen's business in- terests, including interven- ing in a Medicare billing dispute worth millions of dollars. Menendez pleaded not guilty in federal court Thursday to charges in- cluding bribery, conspir- acy and making false state- ments. Melgen also pleaded not guilty. The New Jersey Demo- crat had earlier defiantly asserted his innocence in a public appearance hours after the indictment, pre- dicted he would be vindi- cated and said Justice De- partment prosecutors "don't know the difference be- tween friendship and cor- ruption." Menendez lawyer Abbe Lowell picked up on that theme following Thursday's arraignment. "Prosecutors at the Justice Department often get it wrong," Low- ell told reporters. "These charges are the latest in- stance of that." In the government's tell- ing, the gifts were given with the corrupt intent to spur specific acts on Melgen's behalf. But de- fense lawyers are likely to cast the gifts as tokens exchanged between men who've shared a close bond for 20 years. What prose- cutors call unlawful favors will invariably be charac- terized by Menendez's de- fense as actions that fall within a senator's ordinary responsibilities and duties — and done for the right reasons. CORRUPTION PROBE Potential hurdles await prosecutors in Sen. Menendez case Please help sponsor a classroom subscription Call Kathy at (530) 737-5047 to find out how. ThroughtheNewspapersinEducation program, area classrooms receive the Red Bluff Daily News every day thanks to the generosity of these local businesses & individuals. • DR. ASATO & DR. MARTIN • FIDELITY NATIONAL TITLE CO. • WI N G S OLA R & W OO D EN ERGY • DOLLING INSURANCE • GUMM'S OPTICAL SHOPPE • OLIVE CITY QUICK LUBE • WA LM AR T • TEHAMA CO. DEPT. 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