Mr. Musk goes to Washington to stump for Twitter and Tesla

Elon Musk continued his tour of Washington, D.C. Friday with visits to the White House and Capitol Hill — including several powerful Republicans who are investigating the Biden administration’s efforts to influence the major social media platforms, as well as Big Tech’s alleged censorship of conservatives.

Musk met with House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), according to a person familiar with the matter, and House Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer (R-Ky), according to a committee spokesperson.

Jordan and Comer’s offices declined to share details of the meetings. The tech billionaire’s Friday goodwill tour of the GOP followed a Thursday meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, where Musk apparently wished the speaker happy birthday. While it’s not clear exactly what Musk discussed with Republican lawmakers this week, it’s telling that he made the rounds with the new chairs of the committees with jurisdiction over tech platforms.

Musk also met with two top White House officials on Friday to discuss how the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure law, which together look to invest billions in electric vehicles, can “advance EVs and the increase of electrification more broadly,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Musk met with John Podesta, senior advisor to the president for clean energy innovation, and Mitch Landrieu, who oversees implementation of the infrastructure legislation. Reuters first reported the meeting.

“The outreach and the meeting says a lot about how important the President thinks the bipartisan infrastructure legislation is and the Inflation Reduction Act is, especially as it relates to EVs,” Jean-Pierre said.

Musk, who heads Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX — and was formerly the world’s richest man — has aligned himself with Republicans in recent months, backing the GOP in the midterms, returning former President Donald Trump to the platform, and supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSeantis for president — even as he’s called Democrats the party of “division and hate.”

Republicans — with Jordan and Comer in the lead — have set their sights on investigating the Biden administration’s alleged jawboning of social media companies to censor conservatives, and have praised Musk for releasing internal documents — known as the Twitter files — that reveal some of the deliberations around Twitter’s decisions to ban Trump and remove Covid misinformation, among other topics.

Comer has announced he wants to hold an early February hearing where he's requested former Twitter executives to discuss their removal of the New York Post's reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop.

Musk also talked to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Thursday, though Jeffries’ office said the meeting was a chance encounter and not a scheduled event. Musk himself tweeted about talking to McCarthy and Jeffries, saying they discussed “ensuring that this platform is fair to both parties.”

McCarthy and Jefferies’ offices did not respond to a request for comment on what additional topics were discussed.

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Palestinian gunman kills 6 near Jerusalem synagogue

JERUSALEM — A Palestinian gunman opened fire outside an east Jerusalem synagogue Friday night, killing six people and wounding four before police shot him, officials said. It was the deadliest attack on Israelis in years and raised the likelihood of further bloodshed.

The attack, which took place as worshippers were celebrating the Jewish Sabbath, came a day after an Israeli military raid killed nine people in the West Bank. The new attack set off public celebrations in both the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where people fired guns into the air, honked car horns and distributed sweets.

The burst of violence, which also included a rocket barrage from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes, has posed an early challenge for Israel’s new government, which is dominated by ultranationalists who have pushed for a hard line against Palestinian violence. It also cast a cloud over a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region Sunday.

Israeli police said the attack occurred in Neve Yaakov, a Jewish area in east Jerusalem. It said forces rushed to the scene and shot the gunman. “The terrorist was neutralized,” it said, using a term that typically means an attacker has been killed. There was no immediate confirmation of his condition.

Israel’s national rescue service, MADA, initially confirmed five deaths and five other people wounded, including a 70-year-old woman, a 60-year-old woman and a teenage boy. Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital later said one man in his 40s had died from his wounds.

The shooting was the deadliest on Israelis since a 2008 shooting killed eight people in a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry. Given the location and timing, it threatened to trigger a tough response from Israel.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant scheduled a meeting with his army chief and other top security officials.

Overnight Thursday, Gaza militants fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel, with all of them either intercepted or landing in open areas. Israel responded with a series of airstrikes on targets in Gaza. No casualties were reported. Earlier in the day, Gallant had ordered Israel to prepare for new action in Gaza “if necessary.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday’s shooting. In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the attack was “a revenge and natural response” to the killing of nine Palestinians in Jenin on Thursday.

At several locations across the Gaza Strip, dozens of Palestinians gathered in spontaneous demonstrations to celebrate the Jerusalem attack, with some coming out of dessert shops with large trays of sweets to distribute. In downtown Gaza City, celebratory gunfire could be heard, as cars honked and calls of “God is great!” wafted from mosque loudspeakers. In the West Bank town of Jericho, Palestinians launched fireworks and honked horns in celebration.

The attack escalated tensions that were already heightened following the deadly military raid in the West Bank town of Jenin — where nine people, including at least seven militants and a 61-year-old woman, were killed. It was the deadliest single raid in the West Bank in two decades. A 10th Palestinian was killed in separate fighting near Jerusalem.

Palestinians had marched in anger earlier Friday as they buried the last of the 10 Palestinians killed a day earlier.

Scuffles between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters erupted after the funeral for a 22-year-old Palestinian north of Jerusalem and elsewhere in the occupied West Bank, but calm prevailed in the contested capital and in the blockaded Gaza Strip for most of the day.

Signs that the situation might be calming quickly dissolved with Friday night’s shooting. Israel’s opposition leader, former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, called it “horrific and heartbreaking.”

There was no immediate response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Blinken’s trip is now likely to be focused heavily on lowering the tensions. He is likely to discuss the underlying causes of the conflict that continue to fester, the agenda of Israel’s new far-right government and the Palestinian Authority’s decision to halt security coordination with Israel in retaliation for the deadly raid.

The Biden administration has been deeply engaged with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in recent days, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, underscoring the “urgent need here for all parties to deescalate to prevent the further loss of civilian life and to work together to improve the security situation in the West Bank.”

“We’re certainly deeply concerned by this escalating cycle of violence in the West Bank as well as the rockets that have been apparently fired from Gaza,” Kirby said before the new shooting. “And of course, we condemn all acts that only further escalate tensions.”

While residents of Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank were on edge, midday prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, often a catalyst for clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police, passed in relative calm.

Both the Palestinian rockets and Israeli airstrikes seemed limited so as to prevent growing into a full-blown war. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and several smaller skirmishes since the militant group seized power in Gaza from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

Tensions have soared since Israel stepped up raids in the West Bank last spring, following a series of Palestinian attacks. Jenin, which was an important a militant stronghold during the 2000-2005 intifada and has again emerged as one, has been the focus of many of the Israeli operations.

Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem last year, making 2022 the deadliest in those territories since 2004, according to leading Israeli rights group B’Tselem. Last year, 30 people were killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

So far this year, 30 Palestinians have been killed, according to a count by The Associated Press.

Israel says most of the dead were militants. But youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in the confrontations also have been killed.

Anwar Gargash, a senior diplomat in the United Arab Emirates, warned that “the Israeli escalation in Jenin is dangerous and disturbing and undermines international efforts to advance the priority of the peace agenda.” The UAE recognized Israel in 2020 along with Bahrain, which has remained silent on the surge in violence.

In the West Bank, Fatah announced a general strike and most shops were closed in Palestinian cities. The PA said Thursday it would halt the ties that its security forces maintain with Israel in a shared effort to contain Islamic militants. Previous threats have been short-lived, in part because of the benefits the authority enjoys from the relationship, and also due to U.S. and Israeli pressure.

The PA has limited control over scattered enclaves in the West Bank, and almost none over militant strongholds like the Jenin camp.

Israel says its raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart attacks. The Palestinians say they further entrench Israel’s 55-year, open-ended occupation of the West Bank, which Israel captured along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want those territories to form any eventual state.

Israel has established dozens of settlements in the West Bank that house 500,000 people. The Palestinians and much of the international community view settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace, even as talks to end the conflict have been moribund for over a decade.

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Capitol Police boost security preparations ahead of Tyre Nichols footage release

Capitol Police officials are beefing up security on the Hill amid heightened concerns over Friday's expected release of reportedly brutal police footage from a traffic stop that led to the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tenn.

The Capitol's law enforcement entity is expected to increase its security posture as departments around the country gird for protests over the weekend related to the Nichols arrest footage, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity. Security boosts ahead of anticipated protest activity generally mean longer hours for officers. The Capitol Police said Friday morning that they are being cautious, like other departments around the country.

Congressional party leadership has been briefed on the ongoing matters, according to another person familiar with the conversations. But workers were spotted Thursday evening unloading fencing near the Capitol. The barricades were of the bicycle-rack type generally used for crowd control.

Five Memphis police officers were charged with murder and other crimes Thursday related to the death of Nichols, who died on Jan. 10. Nichols, who is Black, was stopped by police on Jan. 7. The officers, all of them also Black, were fired by the department last week.

Officials are expected to release video footage from the beating on Friday, though it’s not yet clear how extensive the disclosure will be.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who represents Memphis, discussed the potential for protests on the floor Thursday, urging “peaceful” demonstrations.

"It could be a situation where people want to exercise their First Amendment rights to protest actions of the police department, and people should. But they should be peaceful and calm ... I pray for my city," Cohen said in a floor speech on Thursday.

D.C. police said they are also "fully activating" the force on Friday in preparation for possible protests. The House is expected to be in session for several hours Friday as they complete consideration of an energy bill related to drilling on public lands. The Senate will be out of session.

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Opinion | Russia’s Bloody Sledgehammer

Last November, a snuff film began to circulate online depicting the gruesome murder by sledgehammer of a former member of the Wagner Group, a private military outfit closely linked to the Russian state. If such execution videos bring to mind the grisly tactics of ISIS, the similarities don’t stop there: Like ISIS before it, Wagner engages in extreme violence and is now actively recruiting foreign fighters to join its armed campaigns in numerous countries across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, has left a trail of death and destruction in every place it has operated since 2014, including Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Mozambique, the Central African Republic, Sudan and Mali.

After the snuff video circulated on Telegram, Prigozhin, who now readily acknowledges his role as the founder of the Wagner Group, explained that the murdered man had been one of the estimated 50,000 Wagner mercenaries now fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine — many of them convicts who have been released from prison to serve as cannon fodder. The dead man’s mistake was that he defected, Prigozhin explained, observing, “A dog receives a dog’s death.” And after the European Parliament prepared a resolution last November that called for the Wagner Group to be added to the EU’s terror list, Prigozhin seemed to embrace his pariah status, sending a warning to the EU: a sledgehammer in a violin case.

So when the Biden administration designated the Wagner Group as a transnational criminal organization on Thursday, it might have seemed like a significant step. But it is not enough: Wagner is not just a criminal syndicate, but something more akin to a terrorist group. And Biden can do more.

The administration is of course right that Wagner is engaged in a range of criminal enterprises. There is speculation that its costly siege of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut is motivated by a desire to control salt and gypsum mines in the area. It has also embraced far-right extremism, with links to a white supremacist organization — the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) — that the U.S. already designates as a terrorist group. But if you consider the range and severity of Wagner’s activities — mass murder, rape and torture; using terror to subjugate civilian populations; control of territory; looting of natural resources; enlistment of foreign fighters; sophisticated, Hollywood-style propaganda glorifying the group and Russia — it presents much more of a global threat than the average criminal racket.

Branding Wagner as a transnational criminal organization is mainly a symbolic move. Because Wagner and some of its associates — including Prigozhin himself — are already subject to economic sanctions, the Biden administration’s designation offers no new meaningful tools for actually fighting the group.

But if the group were also to be designated a foreign terrorist organization, the U.S. and its allies would be equipped with a much more robust set of tools to starve Prigozhin and his henchmen of resources and halt Wagner’s rampage of destruction.

As we saw in the successful international effort to vanquish ISIS, designating a foreign terrorist group under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act would bring into play one of the most powerful economic tools that the U.S. government has: a criminal statute that would make it illegal to provide “material support” to the Wagner Group. Due to the extra-territorial nature of the statute, such a designation would substantially hamper Wagner’s operations by putting foreign individuals, companies and countries on notice that doing business with the organization means risking prosecution in the United States.

Several legal and counterterrorism experts have already weighed in that the Wagner Group meets the legal definition of a foreign terrorist organization: a foreign organization, engaged in terror and presenting a threat to the national security of the United States. Members of Congress agree. So why the half measure?

One answer may be a reluctance to further antagonize the Kremlin, which enjoys close ties to Wagner and has come to rely on the group’s mercenaries. But surely such a designation would be less of an irritant than the weapons Washington is sending to arm Ukraine. It would also fall short of the more aggressive proposal offered by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Russia itself be designated a state sponsor of terrorism, which would bring with it a host of complications.

Another concern may be the checkered history of “material support” prosecutions in counterterrorism cases. The many excesses of the post-9/11 era mean that this sort of expansive tool has been reviled, with ample justification, by human rights and humanitarian groups. As we have seen with ISIS, Al-Shabaab and Yemen’s Houthis (whose terrorist designation was withdrawn), when a terrorist group has de facto control of territory — as Wagner currently does in the Central African Republic — there can be a chilling effect preventing humanitarian organizations from providing aid and other support, leading to disastrous humanitarian consequences.

But just because a powerful instrument of foreign policy has been used in an overly broad manner in the past does not mean that it should be jettisoned altogether. Last year, the Treasury Department issued a slate of general licenses to authorize ongoing transactions with individuals or entities subject to sanctions, provided that they are engaged in a range of humanitarian activities. If the Wagner Group is designated a foreign terrorist organization, it will be critical to implement these measures in a way that chokes off the group’s resources and frustrates its activities without visiting collateral damage on already vulnerable populations. This means that the Department of Justice should commit to not pursuing “material support” prosecutions against humanitarian actors.

One reason for ISIS’ eventual defeat in Syria and Iraq was the collective efforts of the 85-member strong Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS. This alliance collaborated to cut off the group’s finances, combat its propaganda and reduce the flow of foreign fighters to its territories. A coalition to combat Wagner could focus on the same three pillars. Given Wagner’s continued expansion in Africa, it is critical that such an effort include African states.

With the prospect of a spring offensive by Russia looming, it is time to step up pressure on this vicious fighting force that is prolonging the Ukraine conflict and destabilizing wide swaths of Africa. It requires a truly international effort to stop an ascendant transnational threat, and the U.S. should start by utilizing the most robust economic tool it has, designating the Wagner Group a foreign terrorist organization.

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Three men indicted in plot to kill Iranian-American journalist on U.S. soil

Three members of an Eastern European criminal group with ties to Iran have been indicted for plotting to murder a U.S. journalist and human rights activist who was critical of the Iranian regime, the Justice Department announced Friday.

“The victim in this case was targeted for exercising the rights to which every American citizen is entitled,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a press conference Friday. “The victim publicized the Iranian government’s human rights abuses, discriminatory treatment of women, suppression of democratic participation and expression, and use of arbitrary imprisonment, torture and execution."

“The conduct charged in today's case shows just how far Iranian actors are willing to go to silence critics of the Iranian regime,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.

The men — Rafat Amirov, Polad Omarov and Khalid Mehdiyev — were charged with murder-for-hire and money laundering for their role in a Tehran-backed plot to kill Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist, on U.S. soil. One of the defendants has been detained since his arrest last July, another is in custody of foreign partners pending extradition, and the third is in U.S. custody and will be presented today in court, Garland said.

Alinejad responded to the news in a video posted on Twitter shortly after the press conference, expressing gratitude for the law enforcement teams who thwarted the plot to kill her, and calling on the U.S. government to respond to the regime’s violent crackdowns on protesters.

“Let me make it clear: I am not scared for my life. Because I knew that killing, assassinating hanging, torturing, raping, is in the DNA of the Isalmic Republic,” Alinejad said. “And that’s why I came to the United States of America. To practice my right, my freedom of expression, to give voice to brave people of Iran who say no to [the] Islamic Republic.”

Alinejad added she is “thankful” for the work of the FBI and U.S. law enforcement, but called on the U.S. government to continue to take “strong action” against Iran. “This is the time that we have to pay attention to innocent people in Iran who don't have any protection,” she said.

“The law enforcement action today is the latest U.S. disruption of plotting activities against this victim and other Americans,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in statement. “It follows a disturbing pattern of Iranian Government-sponsored efforts to kill, torture, and intimidate into silence activists for speaking out for the fundamental rights and freedoms of Iranians around the world. Today’s announcement by the Attorney General should serve as a warning about the long reach of the U.S. Government in defense of Americans everywhere”.

Earlier this week, the U.S. and its allies hit Iran with new sanctions targeting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, five of its board members, four senior IRGC commanders and Iran’s deputy minister of intelligence and security.

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Capitol Police boost security preparations ahead of Tyre Nichols footage release

Capitol Police officials are beefing up security on the Hill amid heightened concerns over Friday's expected release of reportedly brutal police footage from a traffic stop that led to the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tenn.

The Capitol's law enforcement entity is expected to increase its security posture as departments around the country gird for protests over the weekend related to the Nichols arrest footage, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity. Security boosts ahead of anticipated protest activity generally mean longer hours for officers.

Congressional party leadership has been briefed on the ongoing matters, according to another person familiar with the conversations. Capitol Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Five Memphis police officers were charged with murder and other crimes Thursday related to the death of Nichols, who died on Jan. 10. Nichols, who is Black, was stopped by police on Jan. 7. The officers, all of them also Black, were fired by the department last week.

Officials are expected to release video footage from the beating on Friday, though it’s not yet clear how extensive the disclosure will be.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who represents Memphis, discussed the potential for protests on the floor Thursday, urging “peaceful” demonstrations.

"It could be a situation where people want to exercise their First Amendment rights to protest actions of the police department, and people should. But they should be peaceful and calm ... I pray for my city," Cohen said in a floor speech on Thursday.

D.C. police said they are also "fully activating" the force on Friday in preparation for possible protests. The House is expected to be in session for several hours Friday as they complete consideration of an energy bill related to drilling on public lands. The Senate will be out of session.

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Biden at Lunar New Year celebration: ‘Silence is complicity’

President Joe Biden reiterated a call against anti-Asian hate and against assault weapons at the White House’s Lunar New Year reception on Thursday, days after a deadly mass shooting at a celebration of the same holiday in Monterey Park, Calif.

“Silence is complicity. We cannot be silent. I will not be silent,” Biden said.

As he has in response to other mass shootings, Biden on Thursday called again for a ban on assault weapons — a political improbability in the current Congress, in which Republicans hold a majority in the House.

The president said he asked Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, whether he should go to California or host the celebration at the White House.

“She felt very strongly. She said, ‘We have to move forward,’” Biden said. Chu told Biden to “stand in solidarity and in the spirit of toughness that this holiday is all about,” he added.

Chu was previously on the Monterey Park City Council, and she served as mayor three times. She was among members of Congress who wanted to attend the White House’s celebration but had votes on the Hill, Biden said.

Biden also recounted his conversation with Brandon Tsay, the man who disarmed the Monterey Park gunman in a physical altercation in nearby Alhambra after the shooting, which left 11 people dead and several others wounded. (The gunman later killed himself.) Tsay told Biden he thought he was going to die but acted to protect others, the president said.

“Sometimes we underestimate these incredible acts of courage — someone shooting has a semi-automatic pistol aimed at you, and you think about others. That’s pretty profound,” Biden said.

The president said that he’d been in contact with California Gov. Gavin Newsom this week. The state suffered other high-profile, deadly mass shootings since Saturday night, when the shooting happened in Monterey Park: two related shootings in Half Moon Bay that killed a total of seven people, and an additional shooting in Oakland that left one person dead.

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Monterey Park on Wednesday to mourn the victims.

Biden on Thursday thanked first responders, and he asked the nation to support the communities involved in the shootings.

“These are tight-knit communities, as you all know,” Biden said. “They’ll be affected by what they saw — and what they lost — for the rest of their lives.”

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