JULY 21 AND 22, 2018


NEWS AND VIEWS


CARTER PAGE TREATED UNFAIRLY BY DEMOCRATS?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/with-the-release-of-new-documents-devin-nunes%e2%80%99s-memo-on-carter-page-has-gotten-even-less-credible/ar-BBKVM9o?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp
THE WASHINGTON POST
With the release of new documents, Devin Nunes’s memo on Carter Page has gotten even less credible
Philip Bump
JULY 22, 2018 2 hrs ago

PHOTOGRAPH -- © Provided by WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) pauses as he speaks during a presser on Capitol Hill on Oct. 24, 2017. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)

Earlier this year, the political world was gripped by a stunning accusation from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) that the government’s application for a warrant to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was born of bias and almost entirely reliant on a dossier of information compiled on the dime of Democratic operatives. He had a memo that made that argument; eventually, and probably without much goading, President Trump was persuaded to release it publicly.

Even based on what was known then, the hype surrounding Nunes’s memo seemed to oversell the point. In short order, other revelations about the warrant application made it clear that the contents of the memo were iffy. It was the second time in two years that Nunes had gone to bat in defense of one of Trump’s pet theories, and neither time worked out that well.

As it turns out though, Nunes’s efforts to raise questions about the surveillance warrant, granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, were even less robust than they seemed at the time. With the release Friday of a redacted copy of both the initial warrant application targeting Page in October 2016 and the three 90-day extensions of the warrant, we can get a better sense of just how far from the mark the Nunes memo actually was.

The Nunes memo made a number of interpretive claims — assessments of the importance of aspects of the warrant — as well as a number of factual claims. Among the latter were:

1.That the dossier of reports from former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele on behalf of the firm Fusion GPS were an “essential” part of the application.
2.That the fact that Fusion GPS was being paid by a law firm working for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee was never explicitly stated.
3.That neither Steele nor Fusion GPS are identified by name.
4.That the application cites a Yahoo News article from September 2016 that “does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News.” The application also incorrectly asserts that Steele wasn’t directly Yahoo’s source for the story.
5.That the application mentions another Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos but that there is no evidence of cooperation between him and Page.


The memo made a number of other claims focusing on information related to the launch of the investigation into Page that aren’t illuminated any further by the released document.

We can begin with the first point above, that the Steele dossier’s information was “essential” to the warrant.

At the outset, Page is described in the warrant application as “an agent of a foreign power,” specifically Russia. The third section of the application details the evidence linking Page to Russia, beginning with Page having lived in the country for several years and being mentioned as a possible target for recruitment by Russian intelligence officers about five years ago, at which point he was interviewed by the FBI. The first four pages of this section, excluding footnotes, are either redacted or deal with that prior interaction with federal authorities.

The information from the Steele dossier comprises the next 4½ pages, excluding footnotes. It is followed by Page’s public response to reports that he was under investigation, a response triggered by the Yahoo article. That response runs for about 3½ pages and makes up the fourth section of the report.

Five fully redacted pages, making up the fifth and sixth sections of the document, follow, leading into the document’s conclusion.

It’s clear that the information uncovered by Steele does play a prominent role. It’s impossible to say how critical it was to the warrant, though, because so much of the document is redacted.

What isn’t redacted, though, makes a few things clear. First, that the Yahoo article is introduced not as a corroborating story but as the first part of the section titled “Page’s Denial of Cooperation with the Russian Government.” As noted above, that article spurred Page’s response, which is included. There’s no suggestion from the unredacted document that it was included to serve as a second source for the story.

While the warrant application does state that the FBI “does not believe that Source #1 [Steele] directly provided this information to the press” — which was incorrect — that same footnote (No. 18) clearly implies that Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS might have been Yahoo’s source, undercutting the idea the FBI was trying to use Yahoo to bolster the significance of Steele’s findings.

a screenshot of a cell phone© Provided by WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post

(Steele’s findings, by the way, include allegations that Page met with key Russian figures during a trip to Moscow in July 2016. Page later admitted to the House Intelligence Committee that, despite past denials, he had encountered senior Russian officials on that trip, albeit not the ones Steele identified.)

Each of the three renewals of the warrant to surveil Page was granted after the FBI argued that it needed to keep collecting data on Page. The length of the renewals relative to the original application suggests the government kept adding new information to its requests as the surveillance was ongoing.

Consider three sections that appear in each document: The third section (including the Steele information), the fourth through sixth sections (including Page’s denial and more redacted information) and the conclusion. Here’s the page number where each of those appears in each document.


A screenshot of a cell phone© Provided by WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post

As time passes, more information is added to the warrant applications. The middle section — whatever it contained — kept getting larger, meaning that the section dealing with Steele’s report made up less of the overall application.

It’s worth noting, by the way, that after Steele leaked the existence of his dossier to Mother Jones in late October, the FBI cut off its relationship with him. That’s indicated in a bold-type footnote in the renewal applications.

“[I]n or about October 2016, the FBI suspended its relationship with Source #1 [Steele] due to Source #1’s unauthorized disclosure of information to the press,” it reads. However: “Notwithstanding the suspension of its relationship with Source #1, the FBI assesses Source #1 to be reliable as previous reporting from Source #1 has been corroborated and used in criminal proceedings.”

In the initial application, a footnote — which appears on the page in type the same size as the rest of the warrant — indicates Steele had been a corroborated FBI source in the past about whom the FBI was unaware of any “derogatory information.”

There is a full page of footnotes that includes an exploration of the motivations behind Steele’s research, specifically noting why Steele’s “reason for conducting the research” doesn’t disqualify its validity.

You’ve noticed that Steele isn’t mentioned by name in the application and is referred to as Source #1. The critique that Steele and Fusion GPS aren’t identified by name is especially hollow because none of the key actors are. Trump is “Candidate #1.” Clinton, “Candidate #2.” The Republican Party is “Political Party #1.” Clinton, Fusion GPS, Steele and the DNC aren’t identified by name because no one is, save Page, some Russians and Papadopoulos.

The context for naming Papadopoulos isn’t clear; the document is largely redacted in the section where he’s mentioned. But that section does include two important unredacted lines: “the FBI believe that the Russian Government’s efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with Candidate #1’s campaign,” and “Page has established relationships with Russian Government officials, including Russian intelligence officers.”

For all that we learned in the release of the memo, there’s still an enormous amount of redacted information that prevents us from getting anywhere close to a full picture of what happened. From the evidence at hand though, it’s certainly fair to assume that it’s Nunes’s memo, not the warrant application, that suffered from a stronger political bias in its creation.

We can’t entirely blame Nunes, though. In an interview with Fox News in February, he admitted that he himself hadn’t read the warrant application.



THIS ARTICLE DOESN’T INDICATE WHAT CAUSED THE BEATINGS AND WHAT AUTHORITY BENALLA HAD. I WOULD ASK WHETHER MACRON HAD ANY INVOLVEMENT. THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES GIVE FRESH PERSPECTIVE.


UPDATE -- https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-macron-aide/macrons-bodyguard-under-investigation-over-may-day-beatings-idUSKBN1KC0VA
France's Macron orders shake-up of presidency after bodyguard scandal: source
SOPHIE LOUET, MATTHIAS BLAMONT

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron ordered a shake-up of his office after acknowledging failings in the way the presidency handled a scandal over his top bodyguard who was filmed beating a protester on May Day, a source close to the Elysee said.

The bodyguard, Alexandre Benalla, was placed under investigation on Sunday in a case that has sparked a political storm and brought the sharpest criticism Macron has faced since taking power 14 months ago.

Le Monde newspaper released a video last week showing Benalla at the May 1 protests in Paris wearing a riot helmet and police tags while off duty.

In the footage, he can be seen dragging a woman away from a protest and later beating a male demonstrator. On Friday, French media released a second video which showed Benalla also manhandling the woman.

Macron fired Benalla, the head of his personal security detail, on Friday but faced criticism for failing to act sooner. Benalla had initially been suspended for 15 days before being allowed to return to work.

Macron met several members of his government on Sunday to discuss the case, the source said.

FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron walks ahead of his aide Alexandre Benalla at the end of the Bastille Day military parade in Paris, France, July 14, 2018. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo

The bodyguard, Alexandre Benalla, was placed under investigation on Sunday in a case that has sparked a political storm and brought the sharpest criticism Macron has faced since taking power 14 months ago.

Le Monde newspaper released a video last week showing Benalla at the May 1 protests in Paris wearing a riot helmet and police tags while off duty.

In the footage, he can be seen dragging a woman away from a protest and later beating a male demonstrator. On Friday, French media released a second video which showed Benalla also manhandling the woman.

Macron fired Benalla, the head of his personal security detail, on Friday but faced criticism for failing to act sooner. Benalla had initially been suspended for 15 days before being allowed to return to work.

Macron met several members of his government on Sunday to discuss the case, the source said.



“... DETAINED FOR QUESTIONING ON NUMEROUS COUNTS, INCLUDING VIOLENCE BY A PUBLIC SERVANT AND MISUSING POLICE INSIGNIA.” THIS SOUNDS AS THOUGH THE OFFICER BENALLA HAD BEEN IN MORE INCIDENTS OF A CRIMINAL NATURE, PERHAPS, AND WITH OTHER COVERUPS AS WELL.

http://www.france24.com/en/20180721-france-macron-security-aide-benalla-police-violence-scandal-collomb
Macron aide scandal deepens amid claims of cover-up
© Philippe Wojazer, AFP | A picture taken on July 14, 2018 shows French President Emmanuel Macron (R) walking ahead of then top security aide Alexandre Benalla at the end of the Bastille Day military parade in Paris.
Text by Tom WHEELDON
Latest update : 2018-07-21

French President Emmanuel Macron is facing a growing crisis as investigators detained one of his top security aides after a video emerged of him beating a protester in May. A parliamentary inquiry has been set up to examine allegations of a cover-up.

A judicial official said on Friday that Alexandre Benalla, the head of Macron’s personal security detail, had been detained for questioning on numerous counts, including violence by a public servant and misusing police insignia.

This came after French daily Le Monde on Wednesday published a video of Benalla wearing a police riot helmet and beating a man who begs him to stop during a May 1 demonstration. The next day, the newspaper published another video showing Benalla violently dragging a woman away from the protest and wrestling her to the ground.

The presidential office, the Élysée Palace, announced on Friday that Benalla would be sacked on the grounds that he is suspected of unlawfully obtaining police video footage of the incident. The three policemen from whom he procured the footage were also taken into custody when this came to light, accused of “misappropriation of images from a video surveillance system” and “violation of professional secrets”, according to the prosecutor's office.

But this has not silenced angry questions as to why it took two and a half months – that is to say, until Thursday, the day after Le Monde published the first video – for the presidency to inform prosecutors of the violent incident; why Benalla stayed in his job throughout this period; and whether these unanswered questions suggest an official cover-up.

FRANCE 24'S MARC PERELMAN GIVES HIS ANALYSIS


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44917421
Macron aide Alexandre Benalla charged after protesters beaten
July 22, 2018 55 minutes ago

VIDEO -- A student activist filmed a woman and a man being beaten on 1 May

A former aide to French President Emmanuel Macron has been charged after a video emerged showing him beating up a demonstrator during May Day protests.

Alexandre Benalla, who was Mr Macron's top bodyguard, was sacked on Friday after he was exposed as the attacker.

He has been charged with group violence, illegally wearing a police badge and three other felonies.

An official said Mr Macron considered the incident "unacceptable" and promised there would be "no impunity".

Three policemen have also been charged in connection with the attack. They were questioned on Saturday for allegedly leaking security footage to try and prove Mr Benalla's innocence.

Vincent Crase, an employee of Mr Macron's La République en Marche (Republic on the Move) party, is also being investigated after he appeared in the video.

Public outrage over the incident has been exacerbated by footage that appears to show several police officers watching the incident without intervening.

The French presidency has also been accused of being aware of the incident for some time, trying to cover it up, and failing to act swiftly against Mr Benalla.

How did we get here?

The video was posted on social media in May, but the case became a political scandal after Le Monde newspaper revealed that the attacker was Mr Benalla.

A former bodyguard of Mr Macron, he was hired as an aide to the president's chief of staff after last year's election.

Image copyrightREUTERS
Image caption
Mr Macron and Mr Benalla (L) pictured together in July

In May, a few days after the incident, he was given a two-week suspension, but nothing was reported to prosecutors.

The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says this suggests that Mr Macron's office may have already been aware of his actions.

What happened on May Day?

The incident took place in a popular tourist spot in Paris's Latin Quarter where about 100 people had gathered.

The original video shows a man wearing a police helmet, but not in uniform, joining CRS riot police after clashes erupted.

Skip Twitter post by @T_Bouhafs


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He grabs a woman by the neck, dragging her down the street, before both disappear off camera.

Shortly afterwards he returns to the scene, attacking another protester who had been carried a short distance by police before being left alone on the ground.

The man in the helmet can be seen grabbing the young protester around the neck, hitting him on the head and apparently stamping on his stomach when he falls to the ground.


THE COHEN TAPES ON ILLICIT LOVE LIFE OF PRESIDENT TRUMP

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/%e2%80%98this-is-not-the-only-tape%e2%80%99-michael-avenatti-says-there-are-more-secret-recordings-of-trump/ar-BBKWKlt?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp
The Washington Post
‘This is not the only tape’: Michael Avenatti says there are more secret recordings of Trump
Felicia Sonmez
JULY 22, 2018 23 mins ago

PHOTOGRAPH -- © Seth Wenig/AP In this May 30 photo, Michael Avenatti, attorney for Stormy Daniels, talks to reporters as he leaves court in New York

Michael Avenatti has a warning for President Trump: More tapes are out there.

At a roundtable Sunday on ABC News, the lawyer for adult-film star Stormy Daniels said that the secret recording of Trump that was revealed two days ago is far from the only one made by Trump’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen.

“This is not the only tape,” Avenatti said. “I can tell you that for a fact. There’s multiple tapes.”

He added: “That, ultimately, is going to prove to be a big problem for the president. You know, that old adage, ‘You’ve lived by the sword, you die by the sword,’ is going to be true in this case, because the president knew that his attorney, Michael Cohen, had a predisposition towards taping conversations with people.”

On Friday, three people with knowledge of the conversation told The Post that Cohen had secretly taped a conversation with Trump in September 2016 about whether to purchase the rights to Playboy centerfold Karen McDougal’s account of her alleged affair with Trump.

That conversation took place one month after AMI, the parent company of the National Enquirer, bought the rights to McDougal’s story for $150,000, then shelved it.

Cohen is being investigated for potential bank and election-law crimes. The recording was among the records seized in an FBI raid of his office and residences in April, multiple people familiar with the probe said.

One of Trump’s attorneys, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said in a statement Friday that the September 2016 recording is “powerful exculpatory evidence.” Even so, Trump lashed out at Cohen in a tweet on Saturday, claiming that it was “totally unheard of & perhaps illegal” that his attorney would tape him, despite the fact that New York’s wiretapping law permits the recording of conversations so long as at least one party agrees.

Avenatti is representing Daniels, who was paid $130,000 by Cohen in exchange for her silence about an alleged decade-old affair with Trump. He has a history of taunting the president with claims to have more information on Trump’s alleged indiscretions. In March, he tweeted an image of what appeared to be a DVD and said he was sending a “warning shot” to the president regarding his denials of an affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

During Sunday’s roundtable, retired Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, an informal Trump adviser, pressed Avenatti to reveal how he knew of the existence of additional tapes, arguing that the leak of such information could represent a potential violation of lawyer-client privilege.

“You’re not in a position where you have been given that information properly,” Dershowitz said during one heated exchange.

Avenatti declined to reveal any details, maintaining that the only way he would have acted improperly would have been if he received the tape from someone in law enforcement.

“All of the information that the FBI seized, that’s not under lock and key,” he said, adding: “I could have received it from Michael Cohen. I could have received it from one of Michael Cohen’s counsel. I could have received it from others.”

Avenatti also noted that he ran into Cohen on Monday at a restaurant in New York City and that the two had a “very fruitful” conversation.

“I think he is ready to tell the truth,” Avenatti said of Cohen. “And ultimately, I think he is going to cooperate with us as it relates for our search for the truth.”

felicia.sonmez@washpost.com
Carol D. Leonnig and Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.



THE TRUMP AND PUTIN TETE A TETE

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trumps-two-hours-alone-with-putin-still-rattling-washington/ar-BBKWnl4?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=iehp
Trump's Two Hours Alone With Putin Still Rattling Washington
Ros Krasny
JULY 22, 2018 4 hrs ago

1/84 SLIDES © Grigory Dukor/Reuters -- U.S. President Donald Trump receives a football from Russian President Vladimir Putin as they hold a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, Finland July 16, 2018.

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump’s one-on-one meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin continues to unsettle lawmakers and foreign policy experts, who also gave the thumbs-down to a possible follow-up meeting at the White House.

“We need to know everything, and the president’s national security team needs to know everything” about the leaders’ two-hour meeting in Helsinki on July 16, Susan Rice, national security adviser to President Barack Obama, said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

Rice said it was an “historic mistake” to allow Trump -- or any U.S. president -- to sit down with Putin without note-takers or aides present in the room. “We have no idea what transpired,” she said.

“The Russians are feeding their line of what happened,” Rice said. “We are hearing no rebuttal or comment from the United States. Russia is dictating the public perception -- the global public perception of what transpired in that meeting, and we have no basis for countering it.”

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said on Thursday that he was unaware of what transpired in the private Trump-Putin meeting in Helsinki.

Only one other American heard the conversation between Trump and Russia’s president, an interpreter from the U.S. State Department. Republican lawmakers rejected a Democratic proposal to issue a subpoena for the translator to testify.

The potential for Trump to host Putin at the White House later this year for a follow-up summit drew bipartisan opposition in the wake of last week’s meeting.

“In Helsinki, @POTUS agreed to ongoing working level dialogue between the two security council staffs,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a tweet Thursday. “President Trump asked @AmbJohnBolton to invite President Putin to Washington in the fall and those discussions are already underway.”

While it can be valuable to meet with countries that are adversaries, issuing an invitation is different, Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, said on “Fox News Sunday.” Such invitations should be reserved for U.S. allies such as the U.K., Australia and Canada “who are with us day in and day out,” he said.

“Russia is not our friend, and tried to attack us,” Gowdy said in reference to Moscow’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election. He termed evidence of those efforts “overwhelming” and said Trump “needs to say that and act like it.”

Rice said she had no objection to engaging with Russia, including talking with Putin. Such events can be done discreetly, though, such as during pull-asides at multinational gatherings such as the G-20, without the “pomp and circumstance” of a summit.

“You must come prepared,” Rice said. “You must come to advance the United States’ agenda.”

--With assistance from Ben Brody and Miles Weiss.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Mark Niquette

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.


CAN REPUBLICANS GET AWAY WITH BLOCKING THE QUESTIONING OF THE TRANSLATOR BETWEEN TRUMP AND PUTIN? WE NEED SOME SPECIFIC EVIDENCE OF HARM DONE, PERHAPS.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-19/coats-says-i-don-t-know-what-happened-in-trump-putin-meeting
Coats Says ‘I Don’t Know’ What Happened in Trump-Putin Meeting
By Nick Wadhams
‎July‎ ‎19‎, ‎2018‎ ‎4‎:‎09‎ ‎PM
Updated on ‎July‎ ‎19‎, ‎2018‎ ‎5‎:‎19‎ ‎PM

PHOTOGRAPH -- Dan Coats Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Donald Trump’s top spy chief said “I don’t know what happened” during a one-on-one meeting between the president and Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, then appeared surprised to hear the Russian leader was invited to Washington later this year.

Responding to a question at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado on Thursday, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats also said he wouldn’t have recommended meeting with the Russian president alone, with only translators in the room on Monday.

“I would have suggested a different way, but that’s not my role, that’s not my job,” Coats said. “So it is what it is.”

The Trump-Putin meeting caused an uproar when the U.S. president, at a news conference alongside the Russia leader, appeared to give more credence to Putin’s denial that his country meddled in the 2016 election than to the conclusion of Coats and the U.S. intelligence community that it did. Hours later, before the president landed in Washington, Coats pushed back, defending the intelligence community’s conclusions and citing Russia’s “pervasive efforts to undermine our democracy.”

Asked why he put out the statement, Coats said he believed he needed to “correct the record” and take a stand on behalf of the intelligence community to remind people that the U.S. assessment of Russian involvement still stood.

“Obviously I wish he had made a different statement,” Coats said of Trump.

Since the summit, Trump has backed away from the comments he made alongside Putin, telling CBS News on Wednesday that “Dan Coats is excellent” and “I can only say that I do have confidence in our intelligence agencies as currently constituted.”


I WOULDN’T EXPECT PURPOSEFUL AND DAMAGING DISCRIMINATION IN THE USA, BUT THE COMPLEXITY OF DEALING WITH AIDS WOULD MAKE EVERY INDIVIDUAL CASE DIFFERENT, I WOULD THINK. WOULD OUR REGULAR HOSPITALS EVEN KNOW HOW TO TREAT SUCH PEOPLE, OR HAVE FACILITIES THAT ARE EQUIPPED? WILL OUR INSURANCE, OR MEDICAID, PAY FOR THE TREATMENT? WOULD THERE BE A SPREAD OF DISEASES SUCH AS TUBERCULOSIS WITHIN THE HOSPITAL?

https://www.rferl.org/a/death-of-transgender-woman-in-georgia-prompts-health-care-outcry-from-activists/29381809.html
GEORGIA
'No Consideration': Death Of Transgender Woman In Georgia Prompts Health-Care Outcry From Activists
July 22, 2018 08:31 GMT
RFE/RL's Georgian Service Ron Synovitz

PHOTOGRAPH -- People gathered in opposition to LGBT rights during a march for International Women's Day in Tbilisi on March 8.

TBILISI – Gay rights activists in Tbilisi have taken up the case of a transgender woman who died on July 19 from complications of AIDS, saying the way she was treated by the country’s health-care system illustrates a gap between Georgia’s antidiscrimination laws and the realities faced by transgender patients.

Nino Bolkvadze, a lawyer from the Tbilisi-based rights group Identoba, says taboos against homosexuality cause many difficulties for lesbians, bisexuals, and gay men in the predominantly Orthodox Christian country.

But Bolkvadze told RFE/RL on July 20 that the 24-year-old who died of tuberculosis at the Batumi Center for AIDS and Tuberculosis, who has been identified only as Lika, faced even greater difficulties as a transgender woman with AIDS.

As a transgender patient, Bolkvadze argued, Lika required special treatment to ensure her “honor and dignity,” as required by Georgia’s law on patient rights, which forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

"Transgender people [in Georgia] are often alienated from their families at a very young age," says Nino Bolkvadze, a lawyer from the Tbilisi-based rights group Identoba.

Georgia’s health system has a strategic plan on AIDS, but "there is no consideration in that plan for the special needs of transgender people," Bolkvadze said.

"Transgender people [in Georgia] are often alienated from their families at a very young age," Bolkvadze explained. "When this happens, they don't have access to the education and health-care systems and their economic situation becomes very difficult. They often have to become sex workers to survive, which makes them vulnerable to HIV infection."

"Among transgender people, the HIV infection rate in Georgia is 25 percent, which already means HIV is an epidemic for this group," Bolkvadze said. "If all this is not considered as part of the government's AIDS strategy, then HIV will always be prevalent among transgender people in Georgia and the death rate will be high."

Supporters of the LGBT community in Georgia take part in a rally to mark International Women's Day in Tbilisi on March 8.

LGBT rights activist Gocha Gabodze told RFE/RL that transgender people sometimes have to pay money for health-care services that would be provided free to others.

"Not everybody knows their rights and what they are entitled to receive from health-care institutions," Gabodze said.

Lika was admitted to Batumi's AIDS and tuberculosis clinic earlier this year when she became too weak from her illnesses to even stand on her own.

In a July 4 interview conducted at the clinic, Lika told the Batumi-based Batumelebi newspaper that doctors were refusing to treat her as a transgender woman -- insisting that their patients be treated either as males or females.

"I need special treatment," Lika said, referring to the hormone therapy necessary to bring her body into line with her gender identity. "I need special medicines and a special diet to support my treatment, but I am poor and I can’t afford it."


https://www.rferl.org/a/death-of-transgender-woman-in-georgia-prompts-health-care-outcry-from-activists/29086773.html

No media source currently available

0:00 0:01:55

Indeed, medical research shows that cross-gender therapy provides an opportunity to greatly increase the quality of life for transgender AIDS patients by physically affirming their gender identity.

Lika also said that when she was a 6-year-old boy, she was sexually abused by two other boys. She said she became an active homosexual as a young teenager.

At the age of 14, when Lika’s family discovered her sexual orientation, she said they sent her away to live with relatives in Tbilisi. But those relatives also kicked her out of their home when they discovered her homosexuality, she said.

She lived in a Christian Orthodox monastery for about 18 months as an adolescent teenager.

It was after she reached adulthood and left the monastery that she became a transgender woman, she said.

"For the last few years, I survived by earning money as a sex worker," Lika said.

Written by RFE/RL senior correspondent Ron Synovitz based on reporting by RFE/RL Georgian Service correspondents Nino Tarkhnishvili in Tbilisi and Eka Lordkipanidze in Batumi

RFE/RL's Georgian Service
RFE/RL's Georgian Service is widely regarded as the only objective and unbiased source of information in Georgia, where the government still retains a firm grip on media.

webteam@rferl.org