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Russian nexus revealed during 60 Minutes Havana Syndrome investigation into potential attacks on U.S. officials

This report is the result of a joint investigation by 60 Minutes, The Insider, and Der Spiegel

A lead U.S. military investigator examining reports of what has become known as Havana Syndrome told 60 Minutes he believes U.S. officials are being attacked by Russia and that the official threshold to prove it was set impossibly high.

Greg Edgreen, a now-retired Army lieutenant colonel who ran the Pentagon investigation into what officials refer to as “anomalous health incidents,” said the bar for proof was set so high because the country doesn’t want to face some very hard truths, like the existence of possible failures to protect Americans.

“Unfortunately I can’t get into specifics, based on the classification,” Edgreen said. “But I can tell you at a very early stage, I started to focus on Moscow.”

A 2023 government report deemed it “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary was behind the mysterious brain injuries suffered by U.S. national security officials, yet more than 100 Americans have symptoms scientists say could be caused by a beam of microwaves or acoustic ultrasound. Victims are frustrated that the government publicly doubts an adversary is targeting Americans. The ongoing, five-year 60 Minutes investigation has now uncovered new evidence pointing toward Russia.

Are we being attacked?

White House staff, CIA officers, FBI agents, and military officers and their families are among those who believe they were wounded by a secret weapon firing a high-energy beam of microwaves or ultrasound.

Edgreen said the officers targeted were top performers.

“And consistently there was a Russia nexus,” he said. “There was some angle where they had worked against Russia, focused on Russia, and done extremely well.”

Greg Edgreen and Scott Pelley

60 Minutes

Last year, President Biden attended the NATO summit in Lithuania after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Multiple sources told 60 Minutes that a high-level Department of Defense official was struck during the summit. Edgreen shared what the reported incident meant to him.

“It tells me that there are no barriers on what Moscow will do, on who they will attack, and that if we don’t face this head on, the problem is going to get worse,” Edgreen said.

60 Minutes has agreed to withhold the last name of “Carrie,” a Havana Syndrome victim who is still an FBI agent working in counterintelligence. Her case also points to Russia.

She said she was home in Florida in 2021 when she was hit by a crippling force.

“And bam, inside my right ear, it was like a dentist drilling on steroids. That feeling when it gets too close to your eardrum? It’s like that, times 10,” she said.

At the same time, she said, the battery in her phone began to swell until it broke the case. Finally, she passed out on a couch. Because of chest pain, she was checked by a cardiologist, and then returned to duty. For months, she complained to her colleagues of memory issues and problems multitasking.

“My baseline changed,” she said. “I was not the same person.”

60 Minutes has agreed to withhold the last name of “Carrie,” a Havana Syndrome victim who is still an FBI agent working in counterintelligence.

60 Minutes

She spoke with the FBI’s permission but wasn’t allowed to talk about the investigations she was working on when she was hit. 60 Minutes learned from other sources, one of them involved Russian Vitalii Kovalev, who was caught speeding in a Ford Mustang near Key West, Florida in 2020. After a high-speed car chase, a search of the car found notes related to bank accounts along with a device capable of erasing the car’s computerized data, including its GPS records. There was also a Russian passport found.

The investigation into Kovalev

What 60 Minutes has learned along with investigative partner Christo Grozev, a journalist for The Insider, an investigative magazine by Russian exiles, suggests that Kovalev was a Russian spy.

Kovalev studied in a military institute, learning about radio electronics, said Grozev, who’s renowned for his experience unmasking Russian plots. After two years working in a military institute, Kovalev suddenly became a chef in New York and Washington.

“It is not an easy job to just leave that behind. Once you’re in the military, and you’ve been trained, and the Ministry of Defense has invested in you, you remain at their beck and call for the rest of your life,” Grozev said.

It’s not clear what Kovalev might have been up to, but sources told 60 Minutes that, over months, he spent 80 hours being interviewed by “Carrie,” who sources said had investigated several Russian spies for the FBI.

Kovalev received 30 months in jail and, after serving his time, went back to Russia in 2022, ignoring American warnings he was in danger because he’d spent so much time with the FBI. Grozev uncovered a death certificate from last year, which says Kovalev was killed at the front in Ukraine.

“One theory is that he was sent there in order for him to be disposed of,” Grozev said.

Christo Grozev is a journalist for The Insider, an investigative magazine by Russian exiles.

60 Minutes

Mark Zaid, “Carrie’s” attorney who holds a security clearance, has more than two dozen clients suffering symptoms of Havana Syndrome. He said victims include members of the CIA, State Department and FBI.

“The one thread that I know of with the FBI personnel that is common among most, if not all, of my clients other than the family members connected to the employee, was they were all doing something relating to Russia,” Zaid said.

Russian intelligence unit 29155

If it is Russia, Grozev believes Russian intelligence unit 29155 is involved. Grozev has a long track record of uncovering Russian documents and reveals he found one that may link the 29155 unit to a directed energy weapon.

It’s a piece of accounting. A 29155 officer received a bonus for work on “potential capabilities of non-lethal acoustic weapons…”

“It’s the closest to a receipt you can have for this,” Grozev said.

There’s also evidence 29155 may have been present in Tbilisi, Georgia when Americans reported incidents there. Grozev believes members of 29155 were there to facilitate, supervise, or possibly personally implement attacks on American officials using an acoustic weapon.

Sources have told 60 Minutes that an investigation centered on Russian Albert Averyanov, whose name appears on travel manifests and phone records alongside known members of 29155. He’s also the son of the unit’s commander.

Incidents began in Tbilisi the day after a phone call, which was intercepted. Sources said a man on the call asked in Russian: “Is it supposed to have blinking green lights?” and “should I leave it on all night?”

The next day, a U.S. official, their spouse, and their child were hit. That same week, the wife of a Justice Department official, who asked “60 Minutes” to withhold her name over safety concerns, was blindsided by a sound in her laundry room in Tbilisi on Oct. 7, 2021.

“And it just pierced my ears, came in my left side, felt like it came through the window, into my left ear,” she said.

She had a piercing headache and projectile vomited.

Afterward, she looked at the security camera and spotted a vehicle outside she didn’t recognize. There was also a man nearby. 60 Minutes sent a photo of Averyanov to the woman, who said it “absolutely” looks like the man she spotted outside.

“And when I received this photo, I had a visceral reaction,” she said. “It made me feel sick. I cannot absolutely say for certainty that it is this man, but I can tell you that even to this day, looking at him makes me feel that same visceral reaction. And I can absolutely say that this looks like the man that I saw in the street.”

Grozev found Averyanov’s phone was turned off during the Tbilisi incidents, and sources say there’s evidence someone in Tbilisi logged into Averyanov’s personal email during this time. Grozev believes this was most likely Averyanov himself—placing him in the city.

Has there been a cover-up?

Despite incidents like the ones in Tbilisi, the official U.S. intelligence assessment released last year found that it was “very unlikely” a foreign adversary is responsible. The report did acknowledge that some intelligence agencies have only “low” or “moderate” confidence in that conclusion.

This month, the National Institutes of Health reported results of brain scans on patients with symptoms. NIH said there’s no evidence of physical damage. The medical science of so-called anomalous health incidents remains vigorously debated. For its part, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence says the injuries suffered by victims are probably the result of “preexisting conditions, conventional illnesses and environmental factors.”

But Zaid, who’s representing more than two dozen anomalous health incident clients, said he doesn’t believe the entire story is in the U.S. intelligence assessment. Zaid said he knows of classified information that undermines or contradicts what’s been said publicly.

“There is, in my view, without a doubt, evidence of a cover up. Now, some of that cover up is not necessarily that, ‘oh, we found a weapon,'” Zaid said. “What I’ve seen more so is, ‘we see lines of inquiry that would take us potentially to answers we don’t want to have to deal with, so we’re not going to explore any of those avenues.'”

As with all spy stories, much is classified and what remains is circumstantial. None of the witnesses 60 Minutes spoke with wanted to come forward, but they all felt compelled to shine a light on what they see as a war of shadows — a war America may not be winning.

“If this is what we’ve seen with the hundreds of cases of anomalous health incidents, I can assure that this has become probably Putin’s biggest victory,” Grozev said. “In his own mind this has been Russia’s biggest victory against the West.”

Statements from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the White House, and the FBI

In response to inquiries from 60 Minutes, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence referred to the Intelligence Community’s Annual Threat Assessment commentary on anomalous health incidents. The assessment was released earlier this month and states:

“We continue to closely examine anomalous health incidents (AHIs), particularly in areas we have identified as requiring additional research and analysis. Most IC agencies have concluded that it is very unlikely a foreign adversary is responsible for the reported AHIs. IC agencies have varying confidence levels because we still have gaps given the challenges collecting on foreign adversaries—as we do on many issues involving them. As part of its review, the IC identified critical assumptions surrounding the initial AHIs reported in Cuba from 2016 to 2018, which framed the IC’s understanding of this phenomenon, but were not borne out by subsequent medical and technical analysis. In light of this and the evidence that points away from a foreign adversary, causal mechanism, or unique syndromes linked to AHIs, IC agencies assess those symptoms reported by U.S. personnel probably were the result of factors that did not involve a foreign adversary. These findings do not call into question the very real experiences and symptoms that our colleagues and their family members have reported. We continue to prioritize our work on such incidents, allocating resources and expertise across the government, pursuing multiple lines of inquiry and seeking information to fill the gaps we have identified.”

In response to questions from 60 Minutes, a White House spokesperson responded:

“At the start of the Biden-Harris Administration and again following the 2023 Intelligence Community assessment, the White House has directed departments and agencies across the federal government to prioritize investigations into the cause of AHIs and to examine reports thoroughly; to ensure that U.S. Government personnel and their families who report AHIs receive the support and timely access to medical care that they need; and to take reports of AHIs seriously and treat personnel with respect and compassion. The Biden-Harris administration continues to emphasize the importance of prioritizing efforts to comprehensively examine the effects and potential causes of AHIs.”

In response to questions from 60 Minutes, an FBI spokesperson responded:

“The issue of Anomalous Health Incidents is a top priority for the FBI, as the protection, health and well-being of our employees and colleagues across the federal government is paramount. We will continue to work alongside our partners in the intelligence community as part of the interagency effort to determine how we can best protect our personnel. The FBI takes all U.S. government personnel who report symptoms seriously. In keeping with this practice, the FBI has messaged its workforce on how to respond if they experience an AHI, how to report an incident, and where they can receive medical evaluations for symptoms or persistent effects.”

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One question both Republican job applicants and potential Trump jurors must answer

There’s one question both prosecutors and Republican hiring bosses want to know: “Do you believe the 2020 election was stolen?”

After a recent purge of the Republican National Committee, when the new leadership backed by former President Donald Trump fired more than 60 staffers, job applicants for positions in key states are being asked about their views of the 2020 election results, according to two Republican sources with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to CBS News. This line of questioning appears to be a test of their loyalty to Trump — and was described as “insane” by a Republican Party source with knowledge of the interviews.

The same question has been raised in Manhattan courtrooms. It was posed to jurors in a recent civil trial in which Trump was a defendant, and may be posed during jury selection in his upcoming criminal trial.

Trump’s first criminal trial, centering around “hush money” payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, is set to begin in April. Prosecutors see asking potential jurors for their perspectives on the 2020 election results as a way to glean whether “they can be fair and impartial.”

Joshua Steinglass, a lawyer for the district attorney, argued during a Feb. 15 pretrial hearing that jurors should be asked if any of them believe the 2020 election was stolen since “an affirmative answer here demonstrates an unwillingness to follow the facts and blindly rely on statements” made by Trump and could indicate that a juror “may not be willing to follow” the judge’s instructions.

“Over half the population of this country believe the election was stolen,” responded Trump attorney Todd Blanche, citing no evidence to back up that claim, while disputing the need for the question. “This has nothing to do with the facts of this case.”

Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an attempt to cover up the story of his alleged affair with Daniels from coming out before the 2016 election. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

His allegations claiming election fraud during the 2020 presidential election have been proven baseless.

A prosecutor acknowledged copying the election question from jury selection in another recent trial. Left unsaid was that it was a case Trump had lost.

During jury selection in the January trial pitting Trump against the writer E. Jean Carroll, prospective jurors were asked if any of them thought the 2020 presidential election had been stolen. When a man and a woman stood up, Trump turned to look at each of them. His adviser, Boris Epshteyn, sat behind him and appeared to smile.

It was Trump’s first time in a courtroom with a jury for one of his trials. He carefully watched the potential jurors as they were asked a series of politics-related questions, including whether they had voted in the 2016 or 2020 elections, were registered with a political party or had attended a Trump rally. Neither person who thought the election had been stolen was selected for the jury.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office said that the jury questions in the Carroll case had enabled the “well-respected” judge, Lewis Kaplan, to narrow jurors down quickly.

Trump was ultimately ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million. He is appealing the verdict.

The issue of what jurors should reveal about their political views is emerging throughout the former president’s trials. Special counsel Jack Smith has also proposed asking potential jurors for the Florida classified documents case about their beliefs on whether the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Blanche summed up during the February hearing what lawyers on both sides are truly hoping to ascertain from prospective jurors.

“What we all want to know, and what they want to know is: Do they like President Trump?” he said.

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In Uganda, bamboo has government’s backing as a crop with real growth potential

ALONG RIVER RWIZI, Uganda (AP) — Along a stretch of bush by a muddy river, laborers dug and slashed in search of bamboo plants buried under dense grass. Here and there a few plants had sprouted tall, but most of the bamboo seedlings planted more than a year ago never grew.

Now, environment protection officers seeking to restore a 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) stretch of the river’s degraded banks were aiming to plant new bamboo seedlings, clear room for last year’s survivors to grow and look after them better than they did the first time.

A successful bamboo forest by the river Rwizi — the most important in a large part of western Uganda that includes the major city of Mbarara — would create a buffer zone against sand miners, subsistence farmers and others whose activities have long threatened the river. The National Environment Management Authority estimates that the Rwizi has lost 60% of its water catchment area over the decades, and in some areas this winding river runs as narrow as a stream.

“Once bamboo is established, it is almost like a net,” said Jeconious Musingwire, an environment officer who was the project’s technical advisor. “The roots trap everything, including the surface runoff, and stabilize the weaknesses of the banks.”

This East African country is seeing growing interest in bamboo, a perennial plant cultivated in many parts of the world. It can be burned for fuel in rural communities, taking pressure off dwindling forest reserves of eucalyptus and other natural resources. It’s a hardy plant that can grow almost anywhere. And businesses can turn it into products ranging from furniture to toothpicks.

Some of the bamboo species grown in Uganda are imported from Asia, but many — like one whose shoots are smoked and then boiled to make a popular traditional meal in eastern Uganda — grow wild.

The Ugandan government has set a 10-year policy that calls for planting 300,000 hectares (about 1,100 square miles) of bamboo, most of it on private land, by 2029 as part of wider reforestation efforts.

That’s an ambitious target. The Uganda Bamboo Association, the largest such group with 340 members, has planted only 500 hectares. Even with growing interest in bamboo farming, authorities will have to encourage more farmers in rural parts of Uganda to plant vast tracts of land with bamboo.

But signs are promising.

Not far from the scene where laborers were tending bamboo plants sits a large commercial farm that includes seven acres of bamboo. The plants at Kitara Farm were well-tended, and a stockpile of 10,000 bamboo poles sat waiting to be sold.

Caretaker Joseph Katumba said the property has become something of a demonstration farm for people who want to learn more about bamboo. He recalled that when they first began planting bamboo in 2017, some people asked why they were “wasting land” by planting bamboo when it grows wild in the bush.

Katumba said that’s changed, with skeptics now interested in planting bamboo “because they have studied it and they love it.” Unlike eucalyptus — a tall flowering plant widely planted here for its timber — “there is no bamboo season. The more you look after it well, weeding around it, the more and more years you will earn from bamboo.”

Bamboo grows faster than eucalyptus and regenerates like a weed. It also can thrive in poor soil. Kitara Farm stopped planting new eucalyptus lots while its bamboo acreage continues to expand, he said.

“We have so many eucalyptus forests. But we realized that once you cut the eucalyptus trees, eventually they get finished, and once they are finished there is no more money,” he said. “But with bamboo, we investigated and found out that when you plant it … the grandkids and their grandkids and their grandkids will earn from bamboo.”

A single bamboo pole brings a little less than a dollar, so farmers need to grow a lot to earn enough. Bamboo promoters are urging them to see a bamboo plantation as the same kind of cash crop as coffee or tea estates. Banks are offering bamboo “plantation capital” to clients, loans that promise ownership of substantial acres of bamboo.

“Each person should actually plant bamboo, and a lot of it,” said Taga Nuwagaba, a bamboo farmer and businessman who owns a bamboo furniture factory near the Ugandan capital of Kampala. He touts the plant as a a renewable resource that sequesters carbon, too.

“You cut one, five will grow,” he said.

Bamboo plants are normally ready for harvesting in three to five years, and a well-maintained plantation can be useful for at least 50 years, said Jacob Ogola, an agronomist who is working as a consultant at Kitara Farm. He said bamboo is easy to manage, and typically doesn’t need spraying for pests.

Bamboo seedlings are now more widely available via private nursery beds.

Steve Tusiime, a self-described bamboo collector, owns one such nursery in Mbarara. Tusiime said he’s been fascinated by the plant since seeing one as a boy. Before he got into growing, he recalls traveling to a farm in central Uganda to “hug” bamboo plants, and in 2018 spending his own money to attend a bamboo convention in China, where he got his first bamboo seeds.

Standing on another stretch of land by the river Rwizi where he and his partners have created a bamboo park in a recreation resort still to be commissioned, he waxed lyrical about how bamboo “energizes” him.

“Each bamboo you see here has a story. It has where it comes from and it has different use and it has a different name,” he said. “When you come here the story is bamboo. You learn about different species, different uses. You see different features of bamboo.”

Still, Uganda’s bamboo plantations aren’t growing fast enough to build an industry around the plant. Tusiime’s nursery has sold fewer than 10,000 seedlings in the past two years, confounding his own assessment of bamboo as an important cash crop which also happens to benefit the environment.

“Bamboo can be a future tree for Uganda or for even Africa. For example, you’ve heard people talking about charcoal and firewood and this and that. Bamboo is a better solution,” he said. “You can produce the briquette, you can use it directly as firewood. Bamboo is going to be a game changer in Africa. You can eat bamboo, you can use it to build, you can create an industry for bamboo, you can feed it to your animals, and it can take care of your land.”

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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Body found in barrel identified as potential witness in case of Missouri man accused of holding woman in basement

Human remains found in a barrel in the Missouri River were identified last week as belonging to a woman considered a potential witness in the case against a Missouri man accused of holding a Black woman hostage in his basement.

During a Monday hearing seeking a bond increase for Timothy Haslett Jr., prosecutors said the woman found in the barrel, Jaynie Crosdale, “was inside” Haslett’s Excelsior Springs home before his arrest in October.

The Clay County Prosecutor’s Office did not provide further details but said it presented the evidence to the court.

Excelsior Springs police had identified Crosdale as a potential witness in Haslett’s case in January and asked the public’s help in locating her. Authorities said at the time that they believed Crosdale had “information about the investigation.”

She was later found dead after kayakers located her body in a blue barrel in the Missouri River, according to NBC affiliate KSNT of Topeka, Kansas. Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Immediately after police identified her remains last week, prosecutors filed a motion seeking a higher bond for Haslett, writing in a court filing that they had “concern for the safety of the community.” Prosecutors said Haslett’s bond of $3 million was “insufficient to insure the safety of the community and the victim.”

The court, however, ruled against increasing Haslett’s bond. His attorney did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday.

The home where neighbors raised the alarm in Excelsior Springs, Mo.Sarah Plake / KSHB

Haslett was taken into custody in October after the 22-year-old unidentified victim escaped from his basement wearing a metal dog collar and ran to neighbors for help. The woman said she had been held captive and assaulted.

Lisa Johnson, a neighbor who helped the woman, said she was getting ready for work when she heard a faint “help me” from outside her front door.

“She looked straight at me and said ‘help,'” Johnson previously said.

Johnson said the woman feared that if the police were called Haslett would kill them both, but Johnson called authorities anyway.

“I understood where she was coming from at that point. But I did it anyway,” she said.

Police said they found the woman wearing a metal collar with a padlock, latex lingerie and she had duct tape around her mouth, according to a probable cause statement filed in October.

The woman said Haslett had picked her up in early September and kept her in a small room in his basement, restraining her wrists and ankles with handcuffs, the document stated. She said she had been repeatedly raped and whipped and escaped when Haslett left to take his child to school, according to the probable cause.

Haslett was indicted in February on one count of first-degree rape, four counts of first-degree sodomy, one count of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of second-degree assault and one count of endangering a child. He faces more than five life sentences in prison if convicted.

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Special counsel cites potential conflicts for Mar-a-Lago defense attorney

WASHINGTON — The special counsel prosecuting former President Trump for his alleged mishandling of government secrets has asked for a hearing to discuss whether the defense attorney for a co-defendant has a conflict of interest stemming from his multiple clients.

According to a court filing on Wednesday, attorney Stanley Woodward’s current and past clients include three people who could be called to testify against Walt Nauta, Trump’s aide who is charged with conspiring to obstruct the government’s efforts to reclaim classified documents.

Woodward’s clients include two aides who worked for Trump at the White House and into his post-presidency, and a Mar-a-Lago IT director identified as “Trump Employee 4” in the updated indictment. The Washington, D.C.-based lawyer also represents at least seven other people who have been questioned by prosecutors in the case. He declined to comment when reached by NBC News.

Trump’s Save America PAC has spent $20 million on legal fees in the first half of this year, according to FEC filings. Woodward’s firm was paid more than $200,000 in the first six months of the year.

In defending Nauta, Woodward may need to cross-examine a witness with whom he has had privileged discussions, which raises the risk of an “attorney’s improper use or disclosure of the client’s confidences during the cross-examination,” or “may cause the attorney to pull his punches during cross-examination, perhaps to protect the client’s confidences or ‘to advance the attorney’s own personal interest,’” the motion filed by special counsel Jack Smith’s office argues.

The hearing is “appropriate given that an attorney who cross-examines a former or present client inherently encounters divided loyalties,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.

“Employee 4, who is unnamed in the indictment but was identified by NBC News as Yuscil Taveras, secured a new lawyer in July, and did not waive the conflict, according to the motion. Roughly three weeks later, a grand jury charged Trump, Nauta, and Carlos De Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago property manager, over their efforts to have Taveras delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage.

Prosecutors told Woodward earlier this year that they believed Taveras had information that would incriminate Nauta, and that representing both clients at the same time raised a potential conflict of interest. Woodward said he advised both clients of the government’s position, but that he was unaware of anything the employee could say to incriminate Nauta and did not see a conflict, according to the filing.

Counsel for Trump and De Oliveira, the newly charged property manager who appeared for the first time before a federal judge on Monday, did not weigh in with a position when the government notified them in advance of the request.

The process, known as a Garcia hearing, is not unusual, but it adds a new complication in a case where a handful of lawyers are representing Trump and other individuals.

“This is a problem when you represent multiple people,” said Mark Schnapp, a longtime Miami criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor in South Florida. “In an optimal world, you represent people in multiple representations where none of them get indicted. But it happens.”

By asking for a Garcia hearing, Schnapp said the special counsel is moving to address what could be an issue down the line.

“Let’s assume it went to trial and the government did nothing, and then Nauta said on appeal, ‘Look, I didn’t get a fair trial,’” said Schnapp. “They’re doing the right thing by getting it on the record as to whether it’s a waivable conflict. This way, they knock out a potential issue from appeal.”

Katherine Doyle

Ryan J. Reilly and Lisa Rubin contributed.

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Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson says GOP talk of potential Trump pardon is “inappropriate”

Washington — Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said it’s “inappropriate” for his GOP rivals to talk about pardoning former President Donald Trump if he is convicted in federal court.

The Justice Department unveiled new charges against Trump last week in a superseding indictment related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House and his alleged attempts to obstruct the investigation. Trump pleaded not guilty when he was initially charged.

Hutchinson told “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Trump should not be pardoned for the good of the country.

“That should not be any discussion during a presidential campaign. You don’t put pardons out there to garner votes,” he said. “…Anybody who promises pardons during a presidential campaign is not serving our system of justice well, and it’s inappropriate.”

Before Trump was arraigned in the documents case, biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy vowed to pardon the former president if he’s convicted as soon as he’s sworn in.

Nikki Haley, who served as ambassador to the U.N. in the Trump administration, has previously said she would be “inclined” to pardon Trump. She suggested to “Face the Nation” on Sunday that a pardon would be “in the best interest of the country.”

“I don’t want there to be all of this division over the fact that we have a president serving years in jail over a documents trial,” she said.

Hutchinson said people who are angry about the Trump indictment and are attacking the U.S. justice system in response are “putting his personal good above the public good and above the common good.”

“They see differences as to how cases are handled,” Hutchinson said. “But that is not a defense in a case that’s been brought against Donald Trump.”

Hutchinson, who is 72, also criticized Haley’s calls for mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75.

“As a practical matter, you want a president to be in good health and … in a good mental state, but the tests are not constitutional,” he said. “It really is something that’s a throwaway line that catches people’s attention.”

Hutchinson said he trusted voters “to make the right decisions.”

“There’s a mental acuity test every time you go to Iowa and there’s a town hall meeting with the questions from the voters, they do a pretty good job of assessing those issues,” he said.

Caitlin Yilek

Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital. Reach her at caitlin.yilek@cbsinteractive.com. Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hausofcait

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Ford recalls 870,000 F-150 trucks because of potential parking brake malfunction

Ford Motor has recalled about 870,000 F-150 pickup trucks because of a faulty parking brake that could turn on by itself, causing the driver to lose control.

The recall includes 2021 to 2023 models of the F-150, according to recall documents posted Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Damages in the wiring of some F-150s could activate the truck’s parking brake while someone is driving, causing them to lose control of the vehicle and crash.

Drivers of trucks with the brake issue may see a warning light on their vehicle’s panel, NHTSA documents show.

The Michigan automaker said it would fix the issue by installing a protective tie strap and tape wrap on the brake wiring as well as replacing the rear axle wiring harness if necessary for free at Ford and Lincoln dealerships. Drivers who have already paid a mechanic to fix the problem can be reimbursed by submitting paperwork to Ford by September 11, 2024.

Ford recall under investigation

00:22

Initial investigation goes back to February

The recall comes after Ford started investigating the parking brake issue in February, the company said. The “initial investigation determined that the damaged wiring is part of a rear axle wiring harness assembly that contains wires for the rear electric parking brakes and other electrical components,” according to Ford documents.

“The rear axle wiring harness bundle may contact the rear axle housing which can, in certain circumstances, result in chafing of the wiring harness bundle,” Ford said. “Further investigation determined that, over time, the chafing of the rear axle wiring harness assembly can wear through the abrasion resistant tape and circuit insulation, ultimately exposing copper wiring which can result in the grounding of circuits on the rear axle housing.”

Ford said in the documents that it has 918 warranty claims and three field reports of wire chafing in North America. Of these, 299 indicated unexpected parking brake activation, and 19 of these happened while the trucks were being driven. The company said it doesn’t know of any crashes or injuries caused by the problem.

Earlier this week, Ford reported $1.92 billion in second-quarter profits and a $1 billion in losses from its electric vehicle division. Ford expects its full-year losses on electric vehicles to be around $4.5 billion, up from $3 billion in a previous estimate.

Ford recalled more than 142,000 Lincoln MKCs last month because the SUVs might be prone to spontaneous fires in the engine compartment. The MKC’s battery monitor sensor, which is housed under the hood, is susceptible to damage when repairs are made to the vehicle’s battery or other electrical parts, Ford said.

Anyone with questions about the F-150 recall can contact Ford at 1-866-436-7332 and use reference number 23S35 or NHTSA at 1-888-327-4236.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Khristopher J. Brooks

Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering business, consumer and financial stories that range from economic inequality and housing issues to bankruptcies and the business of sports.

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