John McCain Says Trump Scandal is “Watergate Size”

Here’s the latest development in the White House drama: President Donald Trump asked James Comey to stop investigating Michael Flynn, his former National Security Adviser, back in February. According to Trump’s critics, this proves once and for all that Trump did try to influence the FBI investigation into his campaign’s ties with Russia. Last night, Senator John McCain talked to Bob Schieffer, the retired former host of “Face the Nation.” “I think we’ve seen this movie before. I think it appears at a point where it’s of Watergate size and scale… the shoes continue to drop, and every couple days there’s a new aspect,” McCain said.

Buried in our story: Trump said to Comey that he should consider putting reporters in prison https://t.co/7nlT6gaY1G

— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) May 16, 2017

He recommended that Trump “get it all out” and said that it won’t be over until every detail of this story has been examined–“the same thing that you advised Richard Nixon, which he didn’t do,” he told Schieffer. He also criticized the move to invite Russian officials to the White House. I’ve known this guy [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov for 30 years. He’s an old KGB apparatchik stooge, and Putin is a murderer and a thug,” McCain said and added that it is unacceptable.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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At the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple near Thailand’s western border with Myanmar, Theravada Buddhist monks live with and take care of full grown tigers. They cuddle. They smooch. And for $140, tourists can buy a day of playing with the cats as well, hand feeding and bathing them. But on Wednesday, as a government-led campaign to end the temple’s tiger tourism was underway, a large freezer was found. Inside: 40 tiger cub carcasses, some preserved in jars, others frozen, many dead for years.

The Tiger Temple–as it’s commonly called–was buzzing with Thai officials and police officers, as 64 live adult tigers were hauled away, and the grisly freezer uncovered and unpacked. The seizure was the beginning of Thailand’s Wildlife Conservation Office’s efforts to put an end to the temple’s tiger tourism activities, which have come under increased scrutiny from animal rights groups over the years for mistreating the animals and engaging in black market trafficking.

“The monks have the attitude, ‘I am over the law,'” Teunchai Noochdumrong, the director of the Wildlife Conservation Office told The New York Times a few weeks ago. “They say because they are monks, they have the right to take care of all the animals in that area.”

For years, the temple has faced allegations of trafficking in tiger parts–an illegal offense–and breeding the beasts to sell throughout Asia and especially China, where tiger bone liquor is a highly prized tonic. Trafficking accusations began when a former veterinarian discovered that three adult tigers had gone missing.

Animal rights groups have pressured Thai authorities to end what they saw as the temple’s rough treatment of the tigers. After months of legal battles between the temple and the Wildlife Conservation Office, the campaign to remove the estimated 137 tigers at the temple kicked into high gear this week. Officials say Tiger Temple will be emptied of its tigers by Saturday. 

For its part, the temple claims to be a bastion of harmony between humans and tigers, an endangered species with an estimated 3,000 to 3,600 animals left on the planet. The temple earns $6 million a year from tourism. Tiger Temple addressed the allegations in a Facebook post in March, when trafficking suspicions first arose:

We can only surmise why the rumours of selling tiger cubs started, and it could be that some volunteers have jumped to conclusions after seeing cubs carried out of the general area where our tigers are kept,” the post said, adding they put off responding to the trafficking rumors because “the Buddhist way is to keep silent.”

Journalists from London and Thailand commented on the post, asking why the cub carcasses were kept frozen instead of cremated, “as per Buddhist customs.” The temple responded: “The previous vet Dr. Somchai started this policy. Probably in order to combat the allegations of the temple selling the cubs.” Essentially, the Temple is claiming that it kept the cubs to prove that they weren’t sold, but rather died of natural causes.

The tigers will be moved to government facilities around the country. But on its Facebook page over the weekend, Tiger Temple posted a video of one of its former tigers, Dawie, in a cage at its new home at the Khao Pratap Chang Research Facility; the cat’s face was bloodied and cut.

“Our tigers are used to huge open spaces and freedom, not used to being confined in small bare cages,” the post said.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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President Obama signed a bill this week that closes a nearly 85-year-old trade loophole allowing the import of slave-produced goods into the United States. The new regulations, which will affect a long list of goods known to be created by child or forced labor, will go into effect in about two weeks.

The loophole allowing goods made by child or forced labor into the United States is found in the Tariff Act of 1930. While these types of goods are traditionally prohibited under U.S. law, there’s an exception in the tariff–“consumptive demand.” Essentially what that means is that if it’s impossible to supply the domestic demand without importing products made via child or forced labor, those products are allowed to be imported.

The list of products that these new regulations will affect most heavily are cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, cattle, and fish. The Department of Labor’s list of goods produced by child labor or forced labor also includes things like gold, diamonds, electronics, and pornography–depending of course on the producing country.

There’s been a particular focus on the use of forced labor in the Thai fishing industry, after a number of exposes written over the last year have exposed the use of trafficked Rohingya migrants as slave workers on Thai fishing boats. According to the Guardian:

Hundreds of people are thought to have been traded as slaves to support Thailand’s $7.3bn seafood industry. Costco and CP Foods are facing a lawsuit, filed in California, to prevent the sale of Thai prawns/shrimp tainted by slavery. In January, European Union investigators visited Thailand to see whether it had made enough progress on the issue of slavery to avoid an EU-wide ban on seafood imports from the country.

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) proposed the amendment that closed the loophole, and now his office is asking the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency to begin enforcing the new roles as soon as they go into effect in 15 days. Brown stated:

It’s embarrassing that for 85 years, the United States let products made with forced labor into this country, and closing this loophole gives the U.S. an important tool to fight global slavery.

Brown is right–while this may mean less choices for consumers in the U.S., it will be a comfort to know that we no longer lend such support to forced labor.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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