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NATIONAL
22 Mar
Trump at a crossroads as US weighs tough options in Iran
By Shekar Mamidi
business
17 Mar
Bank of America settles over Epstein claims
Bank of America has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought on behalf of victims of Jeffrey Epstein, who had accused the bank of facilitating his sex trafficking operation.
Terms of the deal, which now goes to the court for approval, were not immediately disclosed.
It marks the third such settlement by a major bank, after JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank agreed to pay out $290m (£218m) and $75m respectively.
Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer for the victims, said in a statement that the resolution was "one more step on the road to much deserved justice". Bank of America declined to comment.
The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed in October by a Florida woman who says she was abused by Epstein "on at least 100 occasions" between 2011 and 2019 and held two accounts at Bank of America at the direction of his business team.
It alleged that the bank had "a plethora of information regarding Epstein's sex trafficking operation but chose profit over protecting the victims".
It cites a record of "incredibly alarming and erratic banking behavior" in her own Bank of America accounts, which were used by Epstein's team.
It also points to more than $150m paid to Epstein by billionaire Leon Block, co-founder of Apollo Global, to Epstein for "purported 'tax and estate planning advice'", via Black's Bank of America account.
Black, who stepped down from Apollo amid scrutiny of his Epstein ties, has denied wrongdoing. He was due to be questioned as part of the case later this month.
Bank of America had previously urged the court to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it had provided routine services to people who at the time had no known links to Epstein, calling the complaint "threadbare and meritless".
The two sides told a judge on Monday that they had reached a "settlement in principle", according to court filings. They are due to provide more information on 27 March, with a court hearing set for 2 April.
By Shekar
News
The World Baseball Classic is good now because the best players care
Paul Skenes – pitching in what was undeniably the biggest game of his stunning-but-underutilized career so far and in what will certainly be the loudest stadium he experiences this year – hit Julio Rodríguez in the wrist with a 98 mile-per-hour fastball.
The extremely painful free pass loaded the bases for Team Dominican Republic in the bottom of the fourth inning after Team USA had just taken a 2-1 lead in the previous frame. It also probably caused a whole bunch of sports fans in the Pacific Northwest to temporarily curse the very existence of the World Baseball Classic. Just ahead of a season with so much promise for the Seattle Mariners, why was their young star risking his health for the sake of a showcase?
About 10 minutes later, Rodríguez gave them the answer. Tracking a deep drive, he reached out that same hand to brace himself, scaling the outfield wall to steal a home run from the greatest power hitter on the planet. He made a fist, pumped his arms in an X-shape across his chest and roared – not in pain, but in power and pride. What separates a showcase from something with true stakes if not the emotional investment of the people involved?
Later, Aaron Judge, the man robbed of the home run but also the author of an incredible defensive play of his own, declared the WBC crowds “bigger and better than the World Series.”
By Shekar
Spots
Democrats like Markwayne Mullin but that doesn’t mean they’ll vote for him for DHS secretary
In his early days in Congress, Markwayne Mullin tried pairing his suit jacket and tie with a pair of jeans on the House floor. Then-House Speaker John Boehner reprimanded the young Republican for breaking the dress code.
He might have come to Washington dressing as an outlier, but the 48-year-old – who still wears his cowboy hat on occasion to preside over the Senate floor – has learned a lot since.
Since coming to Washington in 2013, Mullin has built a brand on Capitol Hill as a straight-talking, former MMA fighter who is the rare partisan warrior who can tout White House talking points on Fox News and then sit down to cut the occasional deals with Democrats. The affable Oklahoman has spent decades building strong connections across both chambers in the US Capitol – which eventually helped catapult him into the president’s inner circle.
Now, Mullin is nominated to serve as President Donald Trump’s secretary of Homeland Security, a post that will require him to execute the president’s signature campaign promise on immigration, which has turned into one of the party’s biggest political liabilities heading into the midterms. He is also about to test just how much he can keep his outsider bona fides while doing Trump’s bidding.
Mullin will sit before the Senate Homeland Security Committee Wednesday, just two weeks after he was suddenly tapped for the post and more than a month into a partisan government shutdown of the very agency that – if confirmed – he would run.
Now on the other side of the dais, Mullin is expected to face a grilling from Senate Democrats – some of whom have years-long friendships with him but are under intense pressure to oppose him amid the fractious immigration politics of this moment.
By Shekar