Protesters are gathering in cities from Washington to Fort Worth, Texas, to decry President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency to fund his planned U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Organized by the liberal group MoveOn and others, the Presidents Day demonstrations assailed Trump's declaration as undemocratic, anti-immigrant and based on a nonexistent emergency.
The declaration shifts billions of dollars from military construction to the border. The move came after Congress didn't approve as much as Trump wanted for the wall. He considers it a national security necessity.
Cathy Clark holds a sign and yells during a protest in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. People gathered on the Presidents Day holiday to protest President Donald Trump's recent national emergency declaration. (AP PhotoLM Otero)
While he was in Florida, hundreds of protesters stood at the White House fence Monday. They chanted: "Trump is the national emergency."
At a rally beforehand, a few apparent counter-protesters toted a sign saying, "finish the wall."
Carolyn Hursh, right, and Joey Daniel, carry a sign during a protest with others in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. People gathered on the Presidents Day holiday to protest President Donald Trump's recent national emergency declaration. (AP PhotoLM Otero)
Jay Platt holds a sign during a protest in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. People gathered on the Presidents Day holiday to protest President Donald Trump's recent national emergency declaration. (AP PhotoLM Otero)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn’t order the death of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in February, according to an official familiar with the determination.
While U.S. officials believe Putin was ultimately responsible for the death of Navalny, who endured brutal conditions during his confinement, the intelligence community has found “no smoking gun” that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death — which came soon before the Russian president's reelection — or directly ordered it, according to the official.
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
Soon after Navalny’s death, U.S. President Joe Biden said Putin was ultimately responsible but did not accuse the Russian president of directly ordering it.
At the time, Biden said the U.S. did not know exactly what had happened to Navalny but that “there is no doubt” that his death “was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did.”
Navalny, 47, Russia’s best-known opposition politician and Putin’s most persistent foe, died Feb. 16 in a remote penal colony above the Arctic Circle while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated.
He had been behind bars since January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany, where he had been recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.
Russian officials have said only that Navalny died of natural causes and have vehemently denied involvement both in the poisoning and in his death.
In March, a month after Navalny’s death, Putin won a landslide reelection for a fifth term, an outcome that was never in doubt.
The Wall Street Journal first reported about the U.S. intelligence determination.
FILE - Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny gestures while speaking during his interview to the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia on Dec. 18, 2017. U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely didn't order the death of Navalny, the imprisoned opposition leader, in February of 2024. An official says the U.S. intelligence community has found "no smoking gun" that Putin was aware of the timing of Navalny's death or directly ordered it. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
