President-elect Donald Trump met on Monday with executives from Univision , even though he clashed with the network during his presidential campaign.
Among those at the meeting were Univision president and CEO Randy Falco and Isaac Lee, its chief news, entertainment, and digital officer.
Trump sued Univision in July, 2015 , shortly after the network dropped the Miss USA pageant over remarks that Trump made about Mexican immigrants during his kickoff speech for president. Trump was co-owner of the pageant. The lawsuit was later settled.
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During the campaign, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who focused on Trump’s stances on immigration, was once kicked out of a Trump press conference.
In a statement released after the meeting, the company vowed to continue to aggressively cover Trump’s administration.
“We just had a productive meeting with President-elect Donald Trump about issues facing Hispanic and multicultural communities in America,” the company said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Mr. Trump and his administration to make our vibrant country even better. Our Univision News team will continue to cover the Trump administration with the rigor that we have brought to the coverage of every administration that preceded it. We approach this task without fear or favor and with one goal only – to ensure our audience is well-informed. Our eyes, ears and minds are wide open.”

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DETROIT — The Volkswagen executive who once was in charge of complying with U. S. emissions regulations was arrested over the weekend in Florida and accused of deceiving federal regulators about the use of special software that cheated on emissions tests.
Oliver Schmidt, who was general manager of the engineering and environmental office for VW of America, was charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to defraud the U. S. government and wire fraud.
Schmidt, 48, a resident of Germany, is the second VW employee to be arrested in an ongoing federal investigation into VW, which has admitted that it programmed diesel-powered vehicles to turn pollution controls on during tests and to turn them off in real-world driving. The scandal has cost VW sales and has tarnished its brand worldwide.
Schmidt was ordered held Monday at a hearing in Miami, where prosecutors argued that he posed a flight risk if released. He faces another hearing Thursday. After that he likely will be taken to Detroit, where the Justice Department investigation is based.
The complaint, dated Dec. 30, accuses Schmidt of conspiring with other Volkswagen executives to mislead U. S. regulators about why their vehicles emitted higher emissions on the road than during tests. Schmidt “offered reasons for the discrepancy” other than the fact that the company was cheating on emissions tests through illegally installed software on its diesel vehicles, court documents say.
Tests commissioned by the nonprofit International Council on Clean Transportation in 2014 found that certain Volkswagen models with diesel engines emitted more than the allowable limit of pollutants. More than a year later, Volkswagen admitted to installing the software on about 500,000 2-liter diesel engines in VW and Audi models in the U. S. The company later said some 3-liter diesels also cheated.
After that study, Schmidt, in an apparent reference to VW’s compliance with emissions limits, wrote a colleague to say, “It should first be decided whether we are honest. If we are not honest, everything stays as it is.”
He later emailed another executive with an analysis that listed possible monetary penalties from the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Difference between street and test stand must be explained. (Intent=penalty!),” Schmidt wrote, according to the complaint.
Schmidt’s bio for a 2012 auto industry conference said he was responsible for ensuring that vehicles built for sale within the U. S. and Canada comply with “past, present and future air quality and fuel economy government standards in both countries.” It says he served as the company’s direct factory and government agency contact for emissions regulations. The criminal complaint says Schmidt was promoted in 2015 as a principal deputy of a senior manager.
Schmidt’s attorney, David Massey, said in court Monday that his client has assets in the U. S., or the assets of friends, totaling about $1 million that would secure his bond. He said Schmidt had been cooperating with the FBI on the emissions probe and had no intent to flee. Massey also said Schmidt was arrested while on vacation in South Florida and had no idea he was going to be charged with a crime while in the U. S.
But Justice Department prosecutor Ben Singer said Schmidt had been evasive with regulators and warned a judge that he was a flight risk.
Volkswagen said in a statement Monday that it is cooperating with the Justice Department in the probe. “It would not be appropriate to comment on any ongoing investigations or to discuss personnel matters,” the statement said.
Herbert Diess, a member of Volkswagen AG’s board of management, appeared in Detroit Sunday evening to introduce a new version of VW’s Tiguan SUV ahead of the North American International Auto Show. He wouldn’t comment when asked if some Volkswagen executives refused to come to the auto show for fear of being arrested.
“I’m here, at least,” he said.
He said he hoped the Justice Department investigation would be resolved “as soon as possible.”
The company has agreed to either repair the cars or buy them back as part of a $15 billion settlement approved by a federal judge in October. Volkswagen agreed to pay owners of 2-liter diesels up to $10,000 depending on the age of their cars.
In October, VW engineer James Robert Liang, of Newbury Park, California, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government and agreed to cooperate with investigations in the U. S. and Germany. Liang was the first person to enter a plea in the wide-ranging case, and authorities were expected to use him to go after higher-ranking VW officials.
A grand jury indictment against Liang detailed a 10-year conspiracy by Volkswagen employees in the U. S. and Germany to repeatedly dupe U. S. regulators by using sophisticated emissions software. The indictment detailed emails between Liang and co-workers that initially admitted to cheating in an almost cavalier manner but then turned desperate after the deception was uncovered.
The complaint against Schmidt also references two cooperating witnesses in the company’s engine development department, who have agreed to speak with investigators in exchange for not being prosecuted.
The EPA found that the 2-liter cars emitted up to 40 times the legal limit for nitrogen oxide, which can cause human respiratory problems.
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WASHINGTON – Growing numbers of Republicans showed discomfort Monday over obliterating President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul without having a replacement to show voters. Hoping to capitalize on the jitters, Democrats staged an evening Senate talk-a-thon to condemn the Republican push.
With Donald Trump just 12 days from entering the White House, Republicans have positioned a repeal and replacement of Obama’s 2010 health care statute atop their congressional agenda. But Republican lawmakers have never been able to rally behind an alternative, and Republican senators are increasingly voicing reluctance to vote to yank health coverage from millions of people without a substitute.
That hesitancy was fed as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., among those who want to delay repeal until a substitute is ready, said Trump telephoned him Friday night and expressed support for doing both together. The president-elect expressed a similar sentiment shortly after his election, but his call to Paul came as Republican congressional leaders have pushed toward an early repeal vote, to be followed by work on alternative health care legislation that could take months or years to craft.
“There are gathering voices of people saying, ‘Hmm, maybe we should have a replacement the same day as a repeal,’ ” Paul told reporters Monday.
The budding Republican divisions come as the Republican-led Senate pushed toward a final vote this week on a budget that would shield a future bill repealing Obama’s law from a Democratic filibuster.
Once passed by the Senate and later the House, the budget would prevent Senate Democrats from using those delaying tactics against the later legislation repealing Obama’s statute. Filibusters take 60 votes to halt in a chamber Republicans control by just 52-48.
Lawmakers were also focused on confirmation hearings for Trump’s Cabinet.
In Tuesday’s initial hearings, committees will examine Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. , Trump’s pick for attorney general, and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, his choice for homeland security secretary. Seven others were also set for hearings this week.
Also Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee planned a hearing on intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia meddled in the U. S. election by hacking and distributing Democratic party emails to help Trump win the White House.
Among the witnesses will be FBI Director James Comey. It will be his first public appearance before Congress since he announced just before the election that the FBI was studying additional emails connected to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, a revelation many Democrats say contributed to her defeat by Trump.
On the House side of the Capitol, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., met in his office Monday evening with top Trump transition aides to discuss Republican plans to revamp the tax system.
Democrats looking to cast themselves as populist defenders of a law that’s expanded health coverage to 20 million Americans used speeches to C-SPAN cameras and a nearly empty Senate chamber late Monday to attack Republicans for commencing a repeal effort with no alternative in hand.
“The Republicans hate Obamacare. They hate it almost as much as the devil hates holy water,” No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Richard Durbin of Illinois said, using the law’s nickname, as his party’s planned hours of speeches began.
“They certainly have a plan to repeal it, but when it comes to replacing it, they don’t offer anything. But they’re going to go ahead with this,” said Durbin, who said repeal would be “devastating.”
Among Republican senators saying repeal should wait until a Republican alternative is ready is Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Health committee, which will be in the middle of the health-care rewrite. Others voicing that sentiment include Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Bob Corker of Tennessee.
The budget gives congressional committees until Jan. 27 to produce legislation annulling much of the health care law, though the consequences for missing that deadline are minor. Even so, Corker, Collins and three other Republican senators introduced a budget amendment Monday delaying that target date until March 3.
Citing Trump’s support for a simultaneous repeal and replacement, Corker said allowing more time would provide “additional time to get the policy right” and create “a stable transition” between striking Obama’s law and enacting a new one.
In a column posted Monday on FoxNews.com, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., wrote, “Once repeal is passed we will turn to replacement policies that cost less and work better than what we have now.” He said Republicans would replace the law “in manageable pieces,” not one huge bill.
On CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, McConnell said replacement would follow repeal “rapidly” but did not define the timetable.
McConnell met with Trump in New York Monday morning to discuss the Republican agenda.
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(CNN) Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, will be senior adviser to the president, a senior transition official told CNN Monday.
CNN’s Dana Bash contributed to this report.

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