January 14, 2017
— According to a new report, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles faces a criminal investigation by the United States Department of Justice over the EPA’s claim that diesel engines in Jeep Grand Cherokees and Ram 1500 pickups violated the Clean Air Act.
Citing “people familiar with the matter,” Bloomberg reports that the Justice Department has opened the investigation in response to the EPA’s announcement yesterday.
It’s not clear just where the Justice Department’s criminal investigation will focus, however—and it comes even before FCA has responded to the EPA’s claim.
The EPA alleges that Fiat Chrysler knowingly programmed 2014-2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 vehicles equipped with a 3.0-liter turbodiesel V-6 to behave differently while undergoing emissions certification. New cars must be certified as compliant with the Clean Air Act by the EPA before they are allowed to be sold to consumers.
So far, the EPA has not branded the eight auxiliary emissions control devices (AECDs) as “defeat devices. ” Instead, its announcement yesterday was to alert consumers and the media that it is awaiting a response from FCA. The EPA discovered the AECDs while it was following FCA’s request to certify the Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 for the 2017 model year.
FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne denied the EPA’s claims, telling reporters yesterday that his automaker followed protocol. He said that what the federal agency suggested are illegal AECDs similar to what Volkswagen installed in many of its diesel cars are in fact legal software updates. At least for now, the debate appears to be about two things: the fact that FCA did not declare the AECDs and speculation over whether they are legal emissions controls.
Marchionne went as far as suggesting that the EPA’s timing—announcing its findings barely a week before a new administration takes office in Washington, D. C.— may be politically-motivated. President-elect Donald Trump has selected climate change opponent Scott Pruitt as his administration’s new EPA chief.
Comparisons to VW
The EPA’s well-publicized investigation into Volkswagen’s intentionally-installed defeat devices recently resulted in a $4.3 billion fine and indicting half a dozen of the automaker’s executives.
The Justice Department became involved when VW faced allegations of wire fraud (in this case, that the illegal defeat devices were discussed via email) and criminal misconduct on American soil.
VW’s cheat involved significantly more vehicles than the 104,000 Jeeps and Rams equipped with the engine FCA markets as EcoDiesel; around 400,000 VWs with the company’s turbodiesel engine were sold to Americans under the misleading “clean diesel” label.
Under the Clean Air Act, FCA could be fined over $43,000 per vehicle that violates the legislation. VW faced the same hefty charges, but the automaker and the EPA worked out a deal that cut that figure substantially.
This story originally appeared on The Car Connection .

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By The Associated Press
Saturday, Jan. 14, 2017 | 5:52 p.m.
MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities say they have arrested a member of the Honduran military wanted in connection with the March 2016 murder of a prominent environmental activist in Honduras.
Mexico’s National Security Commission said in a statement Saturday that federal authorities in the northern border city of Reynosa had arrested a man in response to an Interpol notice. It did not give the man’s last name. They plan to begin extradition proceedings against him.
Berta Caceres was killed March 3, 2016. Authorities have arrested about a half-dozen suspects in Honduras, including a man who worked for the hydroelectric project that she opposed.
She had been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work to preserve land. She had reported a number of threats prior to her death.

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Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Bilbao in northern Spain on Saturday, calling for amnesty for prisoners of the ETA Basque separatist group.
Protesters in the Basque country, who hold this demonstration every January, held up placards of a finger pointing to the sky as they denounced the prison conditions endured by Basque separatists.
Almost all members of ETA, a group that gave up armed resistence to Spain in 2011, have been jailed but the movement has refused to disband.
They have been calling for an amnesty for their incarcerated members so they can be reunited with their families.
Basque newspaper Gara estimated the number of people in the Bilbao streets on a rainy day as 78,000, while police declined to give a crowd estimate.
An association defending the rights of ETA prisoners released a statement blasting “those who keep in prison prisoners who have long served their sentences imposed by the courts”.
It also demanded that the prisoners be transferred to jails closer to their families.
The collective of Basque political prisoners (EPPK) recently gave up its demand for universal amnesty but has asked for negotiations over suspending sentences on a case by case basis.
According to prisoners’ families association Etxerat, in August 2016, some 279 ETA members were incarcerated in Spain with another 79 in France.
ETA has been blamed for the deaths of 829 people in bombings in Spain since its creation in 1959.
It wants to create an independent homeland from the Basque regions in northern Spain and southwest France.

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Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Saturday that “it might not be a bad idea” if FBI Director James Comey resigned amid an investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general of his handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe.
“He has been compromised that much,” he added. “It is his own, not that he has been compromised by his own people. ”
The review includes examining the agency’s actions leading up to Comey’s decision to announce findings of his probe on July 5.
He said then that Clinton and her top aides were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information” but that no charges should be pursued.
Comey then announced, just days before the Nov. 8 election, that he was re-opening — then again closing — the email investigation.
Democrats have charged that Comey’s actions damaged Clinton’s candidacy and helped Republican Donald Trump win the White House.
“Whatever position he is in, he’s in having put himself there,” Mukasey told Pemmaraju. “The handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails was done in a way that is unlike any criminal investigation that I have ever seen.
“It was not handled in the normal fashion. No grand jury was used. All sorts of irregularities.
“What’s necessary is a complete top-to-bottom investigation, at least of the Clinton matter — so that we know what happened, we know how the investigation was conducted, we know where the shortcomings are,” Mukasey added.
“The trouble is in the current atmosphere, his credibility within the FBI is somewhat compromised. “

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The mother of Tamir Rice is upset that a police officer who shot and killed her 12-year-old son will again avoid charges in the shooting that contributed to the national outcry over minorities dying at the hands of police.
Cleveland officials said Friday that the rookie patrolman will face internal discipline charges over accusations of lying on his police application, but he won’t face an internal review for his use of force.
The decision comes about a year after county prosecutors decided against pursuing criminal charges in the 2014 shooting against officer Timothy Loehmann.
The U. S. Department of Justice still is reviewing the case.
Loehmann, who is white, fired within seconds of arriving outside a recreation center where the black boy was playing with a replica Airsoft-type gun that shoots nonlethal plastic pellets.
Loehmann and his partner had gone to the recreation center after a man called 911 to report that a “guy” was pointing a gun at people.
The boy’s mother, Samaria Rice, and her attorney said it’s “disappointing and disheartening” that Loehmann won’t face discipline for his use of force.
She said Loehmann and his partner, Frank Garmback, who was driving the patrol car that skidded to a stop a few feet from Tamir, should be fired.
“I think this process has taken entirely too long,” Rice said.
The city on Friday said disciplinary hearings will be held over the internal charges recommended against both Loehmann and Garmback.
A city spokesman said the officers could face a suspension or be fired.
Loehmann was accused of lying on his Cleveland police application and failing to mention problems he had while working for another police department.
Garmback was accused of driving his cruiser too close to Tamir and failing to report the time he arrived at the scene.
The Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association said Friday that neither officer did anything wrong that day.
The union said it is reviewing the disciplinary charges and will prepare appropriate defenses for the officers. It said there would be no comment from the officers.

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