Clinton Friend’s Libya Role Blurs Lines of Politics and Business

NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT - When the Clintons last occupied the White House, Sidney Blumenthal cast himself in varied roles: speechwriter, in-house intellectual and press corps whisperer. Republicans added another, accusing Mr. Blumenthal of spreading gossip to discredit Republican investigators, and forced him to testify during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.

Now, as Hillary Rodham Clinton embarks on her second presidential bid, Mr. Blumenthal’s service to the Clintons is once again under the spotlight. Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a Republican who is leading the congressional committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, plans to subpoena Mr. Blumenthal, 66, for a private transcribed interview.

Mr. Gowdy’s chief interest, according to people briefed on the inquiry, is a series of memos that Mr. Blumenthal — who was not an employee of the State Department — wrote to Mrs. Clinton about events unfolding in Libya before and after the death of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. According to emails obtained by The New York Times, Mrs. Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, took Mr. Blumenthal’s advice seriously, forwarding his memos to senior diplomatic officials in Libya and Washington and at times asking them to respond. Mrs. Clinton continued to pass around his memos even after other senior diplomats concluded that Mr. Blumenthal’s assessments were often unreliable.

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FACT CHECK: Rubio is accurate on business starts and deaths

Jason Noble - In his presidential pitch in Iowa and elsewhere, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio calls the 2016 election a "referendum on our identity."

The United States must pursue new policies on taxation, economic competitiveness and foreign policy, he says, or risk losing the exceptional qualities that allowed the nation to thrive throughout the 20th century.

In a meeting with The Des Moines Register's editorial board last month, Rubio illustrated the erosion of American dynamism with a worrying claim: The number of small business closures now exceeds small business startups.

We rate this statement TRUE.

The number of business "deaths" exceeded new businesses created in the four-year period from 2009 to 2012, U.S. Census data show, although the gap is narrowing.

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Seeking Business, Cuomo Heads to Cuba With a New York Trade Delegation

SUSANNE CRAIG - When the United States opened the door for agricultural trade with Cuba more than a decade ago, Ward Dobbins went to Havana to market his Red Delicious apples, fresh from upstate New York. Working out of a tiny trade-show booth, he signed a contract to do business with the Cubans, and even caught a glimpse of Fidel Castro.

“I decided I wanted to be the first, and we were the first company to ship a load of apples after the embargo was lifted,” said Mr. Dobbins, owner of United Apple Sales in Lyndonville, N.Y., a village near Lake Erie.

On Monday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and a delegation of New York business owners and politicians will land in Havana with a similar ambition: to take advantage of the latest and by far the most significant easing of relations between the United States and Cuba in 50 years.

The governor’s plane will touch down in Havana around noon and, in a whirlwind 26-hour trip, he and his trade delegation will meet with Cuban officials and businesses, an effort Mr. Cuomo hopes will pave the way for New York companies to expand their reach to Cuba.

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