WASHINGTON — 

Former Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein told the FBI that he was “angry, ashamed, horrified and embarrassed” at the way James B. Comey was fired as FBI director, according to records released Monday.

Several weeks after Comey’s firing, Rosenstein was interviewed by FBI agents as part of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into ties between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. An FBI summary of that interview was among roughly 300 pages of documents released as part of public records lawsuits brought by BuzzFeed News and CNN.

The records also include summaries of FBI interviews of key Trump associates, including Hope Hicks, Corey Lewandowski and Michael Cohen. They provide additional insight into Mueller’s two-year investigation, which shadowed the first part of Trump’s presidency and preceded an ongoing impeachment inquiry centered on his efforts to press Ukraine for investigations of political rival Joe Biden.

Hicks described efforts to prepare for media scrutiny of a 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Russians and the president’s oldest son. Lewandowski told investigators that the president prodded him to tell then-Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions to make an announcement that the scope of the Russia investigation had been limited to future election interference.

And Cohen, who is now serving a three-year prison sentence for campaign finance violations and lying to Congress, told investigators he advised Trump’s personal lawyer that there was more detail about a proposed deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow than what he had shared with lawmakers.

Cohen said the lawyer, Jay Sekulow, told him that it was not necessary to elaborate or provide additional details and to “stay on message” and to “not contradict Trump,” the FBI said.

Cohen also said he “vaguely recalled” telling Sekulow about a call he had “with a woman from the Kremlin,” and said Sekulow’s response was “in line with ‘so what’ and the deal never happened,” according to the FBI document.

Sekulow told the Associated Press on Monday night that Cohen’s statements were false and that Cohen never told him anything about any call with a woman from Russia.

Rosenstein, who left his Justice Department post in the spring, was interviewed about his role in Comey’s May 2017 firing. Rosenstein wrote a memo harshly criticizing Comey for his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, a document held up by the White House as justification for his firing.

Rosenstein said he was asked during a White House meeting one day before Comey’s firing to produce a memo laying out his concerns with the FBI chief. He said he knew when he left the office that day that Comey would be fired, though he said he did not expect his memo to be immediately released and was surprised by the portrayal in the media that the termination was his idea instead of the White House’s, according to the FBI document. Rosenstein also said his goal in writing the memo was not to get Comey fired.

He said he expected Comey would be contacted by either Trump or Sessions so a meeting could be scheduled and he could be fired in person. Comey instead learned of his firing from television while speaking with agents in Los Angeles.

When he learned of how Comey was fired, he was “angry, ashamed, horrified and embarrassed. It was also humiliating for Comey,” an FBI agent wrote of Rosenstein’s reaction.

At one point during the interview, as Rosenstein was describing how he had “always liked Jim Comey” but disagreed with his decisions in the Clinton case, the deputy attorney general “paused a moment, appearing to have been overcome by emotion, but quickly recovered and apologized,” according to the FBI.

WASHINGTON — 

The House is plunging into a landmark impeachment week, with Democrats who once hoped to sway Republicans now facing the prospect of an ever-hardening partisan split over the question of removing President Trump from office.

Lawmakers were getting their first look at the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment report Monday night behind closed doors. The findings are expected to forcefully make the Democrats’ case that Trump engaged in what the panel’s chairman, Adam B. Schiff, calls impeachable “wrongdoing and misconduct” in pressuring Ukraine to investigate Democrats and Joe Biden while withholding military aid to the ally.

For Republicans offering an early rebuttal ahead of the report’s public release, the proceedings are simply a “hoax,” with Trump insisting he did nothing wrong and his GOP allies in line behind him. Trump tweeted his daily complaints about it all and then added a suggestive, if impractical, question: “Can we go to Supreme Court to stop?”

With the House Judiciary Committee set to have its first hearing Wednesday, the impeachment proceedings are presenting a historic test of political judgment in a case that is dividing Congress and the country.

Departing for a NATO meeting in London, Trump criticized the House for pushing forward Monday with proceedings while he was heading overseas, a breach of political decorum that traditionally leaves partisan differences at the water’s edge.

He predicted Republicans would actually benefit from the entire impeachment effort against him, though “it’s a disgrace for our country.”

For the Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faces a crucial moment of her leadership as she steers the process ahead after resisting the impeachment inquiry through the summer, warning it was too divisive for the country and required bipartisan support.

Speaking to reporters at the international climate conference in Madrid, Pelosi declined to engage with impeachment questions. “When we travel abroad, we don’t talk about the president in a negative way,” she said. “We save that for home.”

Possible grounds for impeachment are focused on whether Trump abused his office as he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a July 25 phone call to launch investigations into Trump’s political rivals. At the time, Trump was withholding $400 million in military aid, jeopardizing key support as Ukraine faced an aggressive Russia at its border.

The report, which the Intelligence Committee will vote on Tuesday and make public, also is expected to include evidence the Democrats say suggests obstruction of Congress, based on Trump’s instructions for his administration to defy subpoenas for documents and testimony.

The next step comes when the Judiciary Committee gavels open its own hearing with legal experts to assess the findings and consider potential articles of impeachment ahead of a possible vote by the full House by Christmas. That would presumably send it to the Senate for a trial in January.

The Democratic majority on the Intelligence Committee says its report, compiled after weeks of testimony from current and former diplomats and administration officials, will speak for itself in laying out the president’s actions toward Ukraine.

Republicans pre-empted the report’s public release with their own 123-page rebuttal.

In it, they claim there’s no evidence Trump pressured Zelensky. Instead, they say Democrats just want to undo the 2016 election. Republicans dismiss witness testimony of a shadow diplomacy being run by Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, and they rely on the president’s insistence that he was merely concerned about “corruption” in Ukraine — though the White House transcript of Trump’s phone call with Zelensky never mentions the word.

“They are trying to impeach President Trump because some unelected bureaucrats chafed at an elected president’s ‘outside the Beltway’ approach to diplomacy,” according to the report from Republican Reps. Devin Nunes of California, Jim Jordan of Ohio and Michael McCaul of Texas.

Jordan appeared to be the only lawmaker who viewed the Democratic report Monday evening when it became available behind closed doors for members of the intelligence panel. He said it was “long.”

Jordan declined to discuss details but said it was the same “lame case” Democrats presented throughout impeachment hearings.

“The president did nothing wrong,” Jordan said. “The facts are on our side.”

Trump on Monday pointed to Zelensky’s recent comments as proof he did nothing wrong. The Ukrainian president said in an interview he never talked to Trump “from the position of a quid pro quo,” but he didn’t say Trump did nothing wrong. In fact, he had strong criticism for Trump’s actions in the Time magazine interview.

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With Ukraine at war with Russia, he said, its partners “can’t go blocking anything for us.”

Schiff said the GOP response was intended for an audience of one, Trump, whose actions are “outside the law and Constitution.”

Democrats could begin drafting articles of impeachment against the president in a matter of days, with voting in the Judiciary Committee next week.

Republicans on the committee, led by Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, plan to use procedural moves to stall the process and portray the inquiry as unfair to the president.

The White House declined an invitation to participate, with Counsel Pat Cipollone denouncing the proceedings as a “baseless and highly partisan inquiry” in a letter to Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.).

Trump had previously suggested that he might be willing to offer written testimony under certain conditions, though aides suggested they did not anticipate Democrats would ever agree to them.

Cipollone’s letter of nonparticipation applied only to the Wednesday hearing, and he demanded more information from Democrats on how they intended to conduct further hearings before Trump would decide whether to participate.

Nadler said Monday if the president really thought his call with Ukraine was “perfect,” as he repeatedly says, he would “provide exculpatory information that refutes the overwhelming evidence of his abuse of power.”

House rules provide the president and his attorneys the right to cross-examine witnesses and review evidence before the committee, but little ability to bring forward witnesses of their own.

Asked why not have his lawyers participate, Trump said Monday: “Because the whole thing is a hoax. Everybody knows it.”

UCLA linebackers Tyree Thompson and Noah Keeter announced on social media Monday that they had entered the transfer portal, hoping to continue their college careers elsewhere.

Thompson, who sat out all of the 2019 season after undergoing foot surgery in August, has exhausted his eligibility but indicated on Twitter that he intended to petition the NCAA for a waiver that would allow him to play an additional season. He started every game for the Bruins in 2018 and finished fourth on the team with 55 tackles.

Thompson was recognized with the departing seniors before UCLA’s season finale against California on Saturday.

“I am grateful to have had the opportunity to compete at the Rose Bowl with my coaches and teammates,” tweeted Thompson, who played one season at Sacramento State and another at Los Angeles Valley College before coming to UCLA. “I am so proud to say that I have a degree from the number one public institution.”

Keeter, a true freshman who was a three-star prospect out of Buchholz High in Gainesville, Fla., did not appear in any games this season.

SEATTLE — 

Rashaad Penny scored one touchdown rushing and one receiving, Russell Wilson hit David Moore for a 60-yard touchdown pass, and the Seattle Seahawks built a big second-half lead before holding off the Minnesota Vikings for a 37-30 win Monday night.

Seattle (10-2) moved into a tie with San Francisco atop of the NFC West but holds the tiebreaker. The Seahawks have the inside track to the division title with four games left.

Minnesota (8-4) fell a game behind Green Bay in the NFC North and is only one game ahead of the Los Angeles Rams in the wild-card race. They may have lost star running back Dalvin Cook to a shoulder injury when he fumbled midway through the third quarter in what became a major turning point.

Wilson wasn’t great, but he came up with key plays as Seattle won its fifth straight. He had a forgettable first-half moment trying to bat down a deflected pass only to watch Anthony Harris intercept the ball and return it for a touchdown. Wilson was 21 of 31 for 240 yards.

The key was the running of Penny and Chris Carson. Seattle rushed for 218 yards, the most allowed by Minnesota this season. Carson had 102, including a 1-yard TD. Penny added 74. The Vikings were giving up just 94 yards per game rushing.

Minnesota quarterback Kirk Cousins was 22 of 38 for 276 yards but couldn’t connect with Irv Smith Jr. on fourth-and-3 at the Vikings 42 with 2:31 left. Jason Myers’ 36-yard field goal with 21 seconds left provided the final margin for Seattle.

It was a wild second half featuring 40 combined points and four key turnovers — three by Minnesota.

Seattle pulled even at 17 on Penny’s 1-yard touchdown run. On Minnesota’s first play of the next possession, Cook was stripped by Rasheem Green, and Bradley McDougald recovered. It was the first of two critical turnovers that led to 10 points for Seattle.

The Seahawks were held to a field goal following Cook’s fumble but took a 27-17 lead on their next possession when Moore ran free through the Vikings secondary and Wilson hit him in stride. Minnesota cornerback Xavier Rhodes appeared to think he had safety help over the top, but no one was there as Moore sprinted for his second TD catch of the season on the next-to-last play of the third quarter.

The first play of the fourth quarter was forgettable for the Vikings as well. Cousins’ pass for Stefan Diggs was intercepted by Tre Flowers, who may have gotten away with pass interference, but deflected the pass and made a juggling interception at the Minnesota 25. Three plays later, Wilson hit Penny on a screen pass and Seattle had a 17-point lead.

Minnesota’s rally started with Seattle’s own blown coverage as Cousins hit Laquon Treadwell for a 58-yard touchdown from Cousins. Seattle seemed poised to add on, helped by a fake punt that Travis Homer took for 29 yards, but DK Metcalf fumbled and the Vikings recovered at their 28 with 9:34 left.

It took barely 2 minutes for Minnesota to pull within 34-30 as Cousins hit Kyle Rudolph for a 3-yard touchdown and another brilliant one-handed catch by the Vikings’ tight end. But that was as close as Minnesota would get.

Injuries

Vikings left tackle Riley Reiff suffered a concussion early in the second half and was ruled out. Cook immediately went to the locker room after his fumble with a shoulder injury and did not return.

Up Next

Vikings: Return home to host Detroit on Sunday.

Seahawks: Travel to Los Angeles to face the Rams on Sunday night.

It was only 5½ years ago that the Kings and the Ducks played an epic second-round playoff series that the Kings rallied to win in a seventh game at Honda Center, gaining an emotional boost that propelled them toward their second Stanley Cup championship in three seasons. Times have been lean for both teams since then, strangely synchronized in their mediocrity as both missed the playoffs last spring completely on lack of merit.

Neither team held a playoff position when they met in Anaheim on Monday for the first time this season, a 4-2 victory by the Ducks in a subdued renewal of their once-fierce rivalry. Not until late in the second period, when the Ducks were protecting a one-goal lead against an energetic push by the Kings, did fans work up enough emotion to start chants for their respective teams, and the crowd looked far smaller than the announced total of 15,434.

The game wasn’t as tense or as dramatic or as skillful as those playoff encounters, but these are different times and different teams. Still, echoes of the rivalry remained.

“We treated it like it’s a normal NHL game. You want to win but there’s a little something there. There’s pride,” Ducks goaltender Ryan Miller said after earning his first win since Oct. 26.

The Kings, who fell to 2-10-1 on the road this season, outshot the Ducks by 19-6 in the second period but, as happened too often this season, couldn’t finish. “It seems to me we don’t bring the same energy on the road as we do at home. We take a lot of jabs, we get knocked down. We slowly pick ourselves up off the mat, then it’s too late,” coach Todd McLellan said. “Can’t play that way. We’ve got some things we need to address and adjust to. I don’t know why it’s happening, but we certainly have to look at it.”

Highlights from the Ducks’ 4-2 win over the Kings at Honda Center on Monday.

After receiving the game in the second period instead of taking the initiative, the Ducks showed resolve by playing a stronger third period. “I think it’s not an ideal period for us. We weren’t doing a very good job in the neutral zone,” Miller said. “I thought we hung together pretty well. Definitely on our heels a bit. The third period was a good reaction.”

The only goal of the third period was the clincher, scored into an empty net by fourth-line center Derek Grant with 38 seconds left. The Ducks’ fourth line was their best weapon, with Grant scoring twice and Carter Rowney scoring once. The kids the Ducks had anticipated would be able to shoulder the scoring load haven’t been producing, so it was left to the low-profile fourth line to save the day — and not for the first time. Grant, Rowney and Nicolas Deslauriers stepped into the void and did their job well at both ends of the ice.

“They’re to be trusted, that’s for sure,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. “They just do everything that’s asked of them. They play a very, very simple game and I think playing a simple game has a great advantage. And again, tonight, those guys leading the way was very important to our success.”

It was just another night’s work of grinding and scoring for Grant, who now has eight goals.

“As a team when you’re struggling to score goals you’re going to take them from anywhere,” Grant said, “and it’s something that for our team to be successful we need all four lines to chip in at different times and we did that tonight. I thought as a group we played well in the third with the lead and we were able to come out on top.”

The Ducks scored first, at 5:14 of the first period, when Grant swatted a rebound past Kings goalie Jack Campbell. The Ducks, who entered the game ranked next to last in the NHL in power-play efficiency, scored a rare man-advantage goal to take a 2-0 lead at 9:47, a play highlighted by Jakob Silfverberg’s one-timer from the left circle.

The Kings cut their deficit to 2-1 at 6:01 of the second period, when defenseman Kurtis MacDermid, who was a healthy scratch in the Kings’ previous game, took a shot from the left point that bounced before it got past Miller. The Ducks responded quickly, when Rowney finished off a slick pass from Hampus Lindholm for a 3-1 lead at 6:57 of the second period. But Kings winger Nikolai Prokhorkin made a dazzling move to score his fourth goal this season, going to his backhand and deking Miller out of position at 11:42 of the second period. Miller, who had been told he’d probably start even before No. 1 goalie John Gibson became too ill to dress for the game, faced 36 shots total.

It’s easy to understand why Kings-Ducks games have become a tough sell at the box office. Both teams have had to revamp their rosters to adapt to the leaguewide trend toward youth and speed, and both have a new coach this season. Both have been showing up and competing most nights but haven’t been able to do that every night, as elite teams do. They’ve offered occasional glimpses of how good they might be someday, but neither has been consistent enough to think a return to the playoffs is likely this season. They’re still figuring out who they want to be when they grow up and how they’re going to get there, a process that often has been painful to watch for both teams.

The Ducks’ winning formula on Monday consisted of gritting their teeth during that second period and grinding on every shift. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. “These type of games, those are the fun ones to play,” Grant said.

“These type” might be the kind that gets the Ducks to the next step in their effort to return to contention.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the L.A. Times soccer newsletter. I’m Kevin Baxter, the Times’ soccer writer and we start today in Europe, where the gap between the rich clubs and the poor ones has never been wider.

The defending champion in three of the continent’s top five leagues – Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus — are the among richest clubs in their countries, according to the accountancy firm Deloitte, which annually ranks the world’s top teams by soccer revenues.

In all three cases, no other club is close.

And Barcelona, the reigning champion in Spain, is the second-richest club in the world behind only league rival Real Madrid.

But in recent years some little guys have proven you can still beat the big clubs even if you can’t outspend them.

In 2016, for example, lowly Leicester City, just two seasons removed from the second-tier Championship, won the EPL title despite having a $100-million payroll that ranked 17^th in the league.

Chelsea and Manchester United each spent nearly 4½ times as much on players that season.

However the real master at doing more with less may be Spanish club Sevilla, winner of three of the last six Europa League titles. Twenty years ago the club was so deep in debt it nearly sold its stadium to pay its bills.

“We didn’t even have the money to buy footballs,” said team president Jose Castro.

So the team found other ways to compete. Because it’s cheaper to make a player than it is to buy one, Sevilla built a stellar academy, one that sent stars such as Sergio Ramos and Jesus Navas to the first team, then on to wealthy teams for exorbitant transfer fees.

“All these players have made us a better side. And then gone on to help the club’s finances when they were sold,” Castro said. “We were the first to understand that, as unpopular as it may be, selling a star player could mean taking a step backward and then three steps forward as long as we knew how to invest the money.”

That’s where Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo – better known as Monchi – comes in. A former goalkeeper who spent his entire career with Sevilla, Monchi, now the club’s sporting director, is the Billy Beane of international soccer.

He has built a deep scouting and player-development system that has beaten the bushes to find, then produce, young players. But it’s also helped him find value in players others have overlooked, allowing him to buy low and sell high, running players through his first team like they’re on a conveyor belt.

And like Beane, executive vice-president of baseball’s Oakland Athletics, he’s managed to win while doing that.

“Being different from the rest will always be the plan,” Monchi said. “On the sporting side we are betting on innovation and development, creating a specific department for this. We are using tools and cutting-edge ideas to look at data.

“Everyone has the data. We are now looking to lighten this process. This is the key. We are trying to cover as much as possible and do it in the quickest way too.

“Twenty thousand players play in professional leagues every weekend. We are trying to create tools to take from those the evidence and data as quickly as possible.”

Between 2005-2016, that strategy won Sevilla six Europa League titles and three domestic cups. Then Monchi left for Roma and the team won nothing.

He returned in March, made 38 moves in the summer transfer market and now Sevilla is third in La Liga – a point behind deep-pocketed Barcelona and Real Madrid – and unbeaten five games into the current Europa League tournament.

“This is how we have done it,” Monchi said. “By returning to being different and setting a trend.”

When Monchi started sending scouts to U-20 games, he says few teams followed. Now those tournaments draw hundreds of club representatives, he said. And while he didn’t invent the idea of developing talent with an eye toward selling it, Monchi has probably played the transfer market better than any other executive in European soccer.

And while that hasn’t changed the names at the top of the league table in Spain, it may be making those top clubs a little uncomfortable.

“We know in advance that the top two spots are for [Real] Madrid and Barcelona. And the third is for Atletico [Madrid] because these teams have a much bigger budget,” he said. “Being close to these teams or even knocking one of them out of third place would be a noteworthy achievement.

“I believe we are close to this level. Our objective to be amongst the best teams in Europe.”

We didn’t start the fire

Zlatan Ibrahimovic took to social media last week to share a photo of a green Hammarby jersey with his name on the back, immediately fueling speculation the former Galaxy striker had signed with the Swedish club.

Turned out he was just announcing he had become a part-owner of the club. But given what happened next he may wish he had kept that a secret.

Ibrahimovic began his pro career in his hometown with rival club Malmo, which just last month erected a statue of him in front of its stadium. So when news spread that Ibrahimovic now owned part of another club, Malmo’s ultras poured lighter fluid on the statue and used flares to set it ablaze. Another group of fans went to the house Ibrahimovic keeps in Malmo and wrote “Judas “ on the door.

Ibrahimovic became a part owner of Hammarby, a Stockholm-based club, by assuming a 23.5% share that was previously held by AEG, the Galaxy’s parent company. The transfer in ownership was part of an agreement Ibrahimovic had with the Galaxy when he signed with the MLS club, similar to the deal David Beckham had in 2007. Beckham’s deal included a $25-million option to buy an MLS club, an option he exercised with Inter Miami, which enters the league next season.

“Everyone is extremely critical,” Kaveh Hosseinpour, vice chairman of the ultras supporter group, told Swedish journalists. “Some are disappointed, some are angry and some think it is idiotic.

“He has probably lost his grip on what he means to Malmo. He misunderstands his position a little when he says that Malmo will be happy for his sake. There is no one in Malmo who runs around in an LA Galaxy shirt and plays with Ibrahimovic on his back.”

Former Malmo player and coach Jens Fjellstrom said in a podcast that Ibrahimovic’s decision was “a declaration of war” and that Ibrahimovic should be considered a “rival” to the club.

Hosseinpour, meanwhile, has called for the statue to be removed and reinstalled in Stockholm, closer to Ibrahimovic’s new team.

Border crossing

Last month’s announcement that Mexico’s Liga MX would take part in the 2020 MLS all-star game is just the latest in a growing list of collaborations between the two leagues that are already benefiting both. But Landon Donovan, who played on both sides of the border, said the biggest impact has yet to be felt.

Last season there were six Mexicans in MLS with four of them – LAFC’s Carlos Vela and Pablo Sisniega and the Galaxy’s Jonathan dos Santos and Uriel Antuna – playing in Southern California. And Donovan, who came out of retirement to spend part of a year playing in the Liga MX with Leon, says he expects that number to increase markedly as the leagues come closer together.

“To a player, every one of them came up to me at some point in four months and said ‘can you get me to MLS?’ I want to play in MLS,” Donovan said of his Mexican league teammates. “In the past the gap in wages was so big that it just made too much sense to play in Mexico. Now it’s very small or it’s negligible. And so now they want to come play here.”

Days after Donovan made those comments Chivas de Guadalajara striker Alan Pulido indicated he was about to do just that.

“Most likely I’ll go to MLS. There are some important teams there that are interested in me,” Pulido said.

Juan Jose Macias, 20, one of Liga MX’s most dangerous strikers in 2019, is repeatedly considering a move north as well.

“It’s great for their family. It’s a great opportunity from a lifestyle perspective. They can make great money,” Donovan said. “They can be stars in these but also have relative anonymity. It’s a dream for them in a lot of cases to come play in America.”

Counting the House

Five of the 10 largest crowds for a women’s soccer match in 2019 featured the U.S. national team.

1. England vs. Germany (friendly in London), 77,768

2. Atletico Madrid vs. Barcelona (Spain, Liga Femenina), 60,739

3. U.S. vs. Netherlands (Women’s World Cup final in Lyon), 57,900

4. U.S. vs. England (Women’s World Cup semifinal in Lyon), 53,512

5. U.S. vs. Portugal (friendly in Philadelphia), 49,504

6. Netherlands vs. Sweden (Women’s World Cup semifinal in Lyon), 48,452

7. Athletic Bilbao vs. Atletico Madrid (Spain. Copa de la Reina), 48,121

8. U.S. vs. France (Women’s World Cup quarterfinal in Paris), 45,595

9. U.S. vs. Chile (Women’s World Cup group stage in Paris), 45,594

10.France vs. South Korea (Women’s World Cup group stage in Paris), 45,261

(Source: Soccer America)

Geography lesson

With expansion teams in Nashville and Miami entering Major League Soccer next season, MLS had to add one team to each of its two conferences. Miami was the natural addition for the 13-team Eastern Conference, leaving Nashville, which is east of the Mississippi River – and east of Chicago — in the Western Conference.

But that’s not the biggest issue with the latest round of expansion. With 26 teams and a 34-game schedule, MLS teams, for the first time, will not play all of their league rivals in 2020.

Each team will play 24 games in conference, meeting the other 12 clubs home and away. But because the league will stick with a 34-game schedule, that leaves room for just 10 games against clubs from the other conference, leading to the most unbalanced schedule in the league’s 25-year history.

And that will make the competition for the Supporters’ Shield, which goes to the team with the league’s best regular-season record, controversial since teams won’t be playing equal schedules. For example LAFC and the Galaxy, which are both in the Western Conference, will play defending league champion Seattle twice while the New York Red Bulls may not play Seattle at all.

MLS could have avoided that by expanding its schedule to 37 games, allowing for all 26 teams to meet one another at least once. But that would have meant further crowding an already packed schedule.

The league will face more scheduling headaches in 2021 when Austin joins the league, then again in 2022 when St. Louis and Sacramento begin play.

The league hopes to announce the complete 2020 schedule by the end of the year. The season will kick off on Feb. 29, the earliest start in MLS history.

Quotebook

“I never stopped dreaming and enjoying football like when I was a child. I hope I have more years to enjoy, although I am aware of how old I am. Everything happens very quickly and I know that the moment of retirement is approaching.”

Lionel Messi, 32, after winning a record sixth Ballon d’Or on Monday

Until next time

Stay tuned for future newsletters. Subscribe here, and I’ll come right to your inbox. Something else you’d like to see? Email me. Or follow me on Twitter: @kbaxter11.

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1/8

Marie Velasco places a rose for her daughter, Yvette Velasco, at a memorial at Cal State San Bernardino on Monday. Yvette Velasco was one of the youngest victims at the mass shooting in San Bernardino four years ago that left 14 people dead and 22 others wounded. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

2/8

Erica Porteous speaks about her sister, Yvette Velasco, at the memorial. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

3/8

The terrorist attack in San Bernardino took place four years ago. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

4/8

A rose for the victims. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

5/8

Melissa Levy listens during the memorial service at Cal State San Bernardino. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

6/8

Allie Wetzel places a rose for her father. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

7/8

Remembering the terrorist attack. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

8/8

Family members of Yvette Velasco. 

(Allison Zaucha / For The Times)

The more than 1,400 days since Yvette Velasco died at the hands of two terrorists in the San Bernardino attack hasn’t buffered the grief for the family she left behind. They said it’s actually worse.

Every time there’s another mass tragedy, Velasco’s mother and sister say they live through the pain again. When Velasco’s mother, Marie, watched news coverage of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., and the shooting at a Walmart in El Paso in August, she heard of other mothers searching for their children, only to learn they were killed. That mentally transports her back to where she was four years ago, she said.

“When you hear parents on TV saying, ‘I can’t find my kid,’ I know what that felt like,” she said. “We know that nightmare because we’ve lived it. It’s indescribable.”

There are ways to cope with the pain even though it is permanent, the family said. On Monday, the four-year anniversary of when Velasco and 13 others were killed, Cal State San Bernardino held a memorial for the victims. Speaking before the crowd, Velasco’s sister, Erica Porteous, said these moments help her family though hard times.

“For our family, not a day goes by that we don’t feel the loss,” Porteous said. “But this brings us comfort.”

On Dec. 2, 2015, a San Bernardino County employee and his wife marched into an office holiday party at the Inland Regional Center; they were clad in black and armed with assault rifles and pistols. They killed 14 people and injured 22 others. Authorities killed them in a shootout.

Velasco, who worked as an environmental health specialist, was 27.

Five of the victims — Robert Adams, Juan Espinoza, Shannon Johnson, Michael Wetzel and Velasco — were Cal State alumni. Three years ago, the university created a “Peace Garden” to honor the victims. It was built just steps away from the College of Natural Sciences, where the five alumni graduated.

At the beginning and end of Monday’s service, a faculty member rang a bell in the center of the stone-accented garden 14 times, once for each of the fallen. It remains silent for the rest of the year.

Sastry Pantula, dean of the college of natural sciences, joined the university in 2018. Though he didn’t know the victims, he said they are always on his mind.

The garden, he said, has become important to the campus. His faculty and students sometimes hold meetings there. Occasionally, he will eat lunch there and meditate. Pantula said it’s imperative to remember the lives lost, not just on the anniversary.

“When you Google San Bernardino, the first thing you read about is the shooting,” Pantula said. “But you can’t live in fear, and it is good that we are promoting peace.

“The biggest worry for me is seeing people reading the news and becoming immune, saying ‘That’s just another shooting.’ People are getting thick skin and aren’t paying attention to the violence around us.”

Dressed in dark clothes with sunglasses covering her eyes, Porteous held a picture of her sister with her black graduation tassel dangling from the frame. After the ceremony, which included brief remarks from Pantula, Porteous and William Vandyke, who works in the college, family members of Velasco and other victims laid white roses at the base of the bell. Porteous said she wants the public to know that her sister was a loving person, and she is thankful that her memory is being kept alive.

“I think that this garden and the fact that the Cal State community continue to remember the alumni, and that their deaths were not in vain, can hopefully bring a sense of awareness,” Porteous said.

State regulators said Pacific Gas & Electric failed to adequately inspect and maintain aging power lines that started last year’s devastating Camp fire, which obliterated the town of Paradise and killed 86 people.

In a 696-page report filed last week, investigators with the California Public Utilities Commission cited PG&E for violating a dozen state safety rules and regulations.

PG&E “failed to maintain an effective inspection and maintenance program to identify and correct hazardous conditions on its transmission lines,” the report says.

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State investigators said there was “visible wear” evident on the arms of the tower tied to the fire but that PG&E failed to conduct climbing inspections of the tower that could have revealed it.

PG&E crews had not climbed the tower that malfunctioned and sparked the Camp fire since at least 2001, the report said.

“This omission is a violation of PG&E’s own policy requiring climbing inspections on towers where recurring problems exist,” the report states.

A climbing inspection could have identified a worn C-hook that failed, and “its timely replacement could have prevented ignition of the Camp fire,” the report says.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection concluded earlier this year that PG&E equipment caused the devastating blaze.

The utility has not disputed the findings. PG&E filed for bankruptcy protection in January in part because of losses from the November 2018 fire. Scores of lawsuits have been filed against the utility.

PG&E could not be reached for comment on the Public Utilities Commission report Monday night. But in a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle, the utility said it accepts the conclusions of the report “reaffirming” findings of the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

“We remain deeply sorry about the role our equipment had in this tragedy, and we apologize to all those impacted by the devastating Camp Fire,” spokesman Paul Doherty told the Chronicle.

There were systematic problems with the company’s oversight of the nearly 100-year-old Caribou-Palermo power line blamed for the fire, the deadliest in state history, according to the report.

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Tuesday, Dec. 3, and I’m writing from Los Angeles.

There are certain square-jawed scions of political families who seem practically born to run for office, or at least be called “Mr. Congressman” by the kid carrying their golf clubs.

But few quite literally take over their father’s seat in Congress, as was the case when Duncan Hunter won his first House race in 2008 to succeed his father, also named Duncan Hunter.

For decades, it seemed nearly unimaginable that anyone not named Duncan Hunter might ever represent this swath of inland San Diego suburbs and portion of Riverside County now known as California’s 50th Congressional District. Even a criminal indictment didn’t seem capable of toppling the Hunter hold on one of the state’s most conservative districts — Hunter still won reelection in 2018, after being indicted with his wife on 60 felony counts that August. But nothing lasts forever, even dynastic strangleholds.

On Monday, in what even the famously evenhanded Associated Press termed “a stunning turn of events,” Hunter announced that he would be pleading guilty in the sweeping campaign finance investigation. The decision to change his plea comes after years of ardent denials and claims that he had been the target of a political “witch hunt.”

[Read the story: “Rep. Duncan Hunter says he will plead guilty in campaign finance scandal, leave Congress” in the Los Angeles Times]

On Monday, Hunter did not explicitly announce that he will be leaving Congress, which is often an outcome in any such plea agreement. But he insinuated as much in an interview with a San Diego TV station, telling KUSI that he was confident “that the transition will be a good one,” and stressed the importance of keeping his seat in the Republican Party.

I know that we live in an age of perma-political scandal and that it can sometimes be difficult to keep them all straight, so let me offer a quick refresher course on the alleged misdeeds of Congressman Hunter.

The August 2018 indictment accused Hunter and his wife of not just being corrupt, but wildly corrupt. Authorities alleged that the Hunters had not only spent more than $250,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses, but that they had also gone to great lengths to conceal and disguise those expenses.

How, you might wonder, does one allegedly blow a quarter-million dollars of campaign funds on personal spending? The apparent answer is both lavish and quotidian, a laundry list of fancy vacations and mundane household expenses.

According to the 47-page indictment, the Hunters spent five figures in campaign funds on a Thanksgiving trip to Italy; they also spent five figures in campaign funds at Costco.

There were dental bills, school tuition, theater and sports tickets, clothes and many rounds of golf. In my personal favorite line item, $600 in airline fees were spent to fly their pet rabbit, Eggburt, across the country. Hunter’s spokesperson referred to this charge as “cabin rabbit transport fees.”

Before the indictment, Hunter was largely known in the public consciousness for two things: Being one of the first sitting congressmen to endorse President Trump’s presidential campaign back in early 2016, and a separate incident in which Hunter went mildly viral for hitting a vape while legislating.

His long, slow fall began in 2016, when the Federal Election Commission and the San Diego Union-Tribune questioned his use of campaign funds to pay for video games on 68 occasions. At the time, the congressman attributed the charges to a mistake made by his son.

A little less than a year after the indictment, in June 2019, Hunter’s wife, Margaret, entered a guilty plea that spelled potential problems for the six-term congressman’s defense. Less than two weeks later, prosecutors entered a new court filing, alleging that Hunter also used campaign money to fund a series of extramarital affairs with congressional staffers and lobbyists.

Hunter is scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday morning to change his plea. He told KUSI that he hoped to spare his children from the difficult spectacle of a trial.

In terms of what’s next for the 50th Congressional District, Republicans are likely to maintain the seat. But Hunter’s guilty plea, which will seemingly take him off the 2020 ballot, “has wholly recast what already was a heated race,” according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

[Read the story: “Duncan Hunter’s guilty plea will widen an already open race for the 50th District” in the San Diego Union-Tribune]

Former Rep. Darrell Issa, former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio and state Sen. Brian Jones had all previously announced that they would challenge Hunter in the primary. Ammar Campa-Najjar, the Democratic challenger whom Hunter defeated in 2018, is also running again.

And now, here’s what’s happening across California:

TOP STORIES

In a major change for the team tasked with addressing rising homelessness in the region, the leader of L.A.’s top homeless agency has announced that he is stepping down after a “long five years.” Homelessness has increased 33% during Peter Lynn’s tenure at the helm of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, precipitating a public reaction that has produced millions of dollars of new tax revenue but also growing frustration with the lack of visible results. Los Angeles Times

One of California’s most powerful labor unions is feuding with Gov. Gavin Newsom. Tensions between the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, which represents plumbers, electricians, ironworkers and other construction workers, and the governor have been brewing for nearly a year. The conflict is fueled by what the union says were actions by the governor that ran counter to the interests of its members, including vetoing bills they supported. The governor’s fight with one of the most formidable factions of organized labor at the Capitol could threaten his agenda to address the state’s housing crisis and test the trades’ political muscle in Sacramento. Los Angeles Times

L.A. STORIES

Toll lanes in the Sepulveda Pass? Metro is in the early stages of planning to allow solo drivers in the 405’s carpool lanes, for a price. Similar programs on portions of the 110 and 10 freeways charge drivers a per-mile toll that changes based on traffic conditions. Los Angeles Times

Pozole season is nigh. Here’s where to get the hominy and meat stew in L.A. L.A. Taco

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IMMIGRATION AND THE BORDER

The Border Patrol threw away migrants’ belongings. A janitor secretly saved and photographed them. The images are now on display at the Skirball in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Times

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Newsom will travel to Iowa to campaign for Sen. Kamala Harris. (Insert your own joke about Newsom’s trip also laying the groundwork in Iowa for his eventual presidential campaign here.) Associated Press

CRIME AND COURTS

Riot Games will pay out at least $10 million to settle a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit. The suit began in November 2018 when two women who had worked at the Los Angeles game studio sued over violations of the California Equal Pay act, alleging that they were routinely subject to sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Los Angeles Times

The establishment of an “Asian Gang Task Force” after a Fresno mass shooting has drawn criticism from the Hmong community in Fresno and beyond: “Some have said they applaud the dedication of more police officers, but think the name of the task force draws unsubstantiated parallels between the shooting and organized crime, reviving unfair stereotypes about the city’s Southeast Asian residents.” KQED

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

“In Search of Lost Time” in the BART station. This Belgian-turned-San Franciscan is on a quest read all of Proust — out loud, in French, in subway stations. Mission Local

Spanish-speaking Camp fire survivors face language and immigration barriers. Chico Enterprise-Record

The WeWork movie is coming. Universal and Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions have fast-tracked a film about the embattled start-up and its founder and former CEO. The Hollywood Reporter

Dozens of logs the length of cars mysteriously appeared on an Oakland street, preventing street sweeping and parking. Homeless advocates have criticized the logs, which they think were dumped there to deter overnight car camping. East Bay Times

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: cloudy, 68. San Diego: cloudy, 66. San Francisco: rain, 61. San Jose: rain, 63. Sacramento: partly sunny, 62. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Karina F. Moreno:

“To be a middle-class tween girl in the Bay Area in the ‘80s was to be obsessed with the ESPRIT outlet. The trek from my house in Oakland to what was then an obscure part of San Francisco was a weekend field trip. The concrete warehouse in the middle of nowhere was full of perfectly organized and color-coded sections of clothes, radiating teenage cool. There were lavish displays of what I could be — sporty, studious, sassy, simple. Now the Warriors arena stands in the shadow of the old ESPRIT outlet — new possibilities, just with a steeper price.”

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

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Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints, ideas and unrelated book recommendations to Julia Wick. Follow her on Twitter @Sherlyholmes.

SAN DIEGO — 

Federal authorities Monday announced a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest of a former San Diego man believed to be the highest-ranking United States citizen fighting for a terrorist organization overseas.

Jehad Serwan Mostafa, 37, is charged in a superseding indictment with providing support to Somali-based terrorist organization Shabab, described by prosecutors as a “militant Islamic” group responsible for numerous deadly attacks on Somali government and military members in East Africa.

Mostafa is charged with criminal activities dating from 2008 to 2017, though authorities told reporters Monday that he’s believed to still be working in a central role planning Shabab’s operations against the government of Somalia.

Federal prosecutors said Mostafa was born in Wisconsin but grew up in San Diego’s Serra Mesa neighborhood and attended high school and college in San Diego.

In 2005, he left the country for Yemen and later Somalia, according to Scott Brunner, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego division.

At some point, Mostafa joined Shabab, which has pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and claimed responsibility for attacks that involve murder, kidnapping and the use of weapons of mass destruction, U.S. Atty. Robert Brewer said.

The group’s goal is to institute “a rigid interpretation of Sharia law” in Somalia by destabilizing the country through attacks against Ethiopian, Somali and other African Union forces, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Mostafa has allegedly participated in terrorist attacks, trained soldiers and acted as a media spokesman for Shabab. Video clips played during the news conference showed an apparently masked Mostafa appearing at a Somali refugee camp in which he read a statement paying tribute to Osama Bin Laden.

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Erin Westfall said it’s believed Mostafa is in southern Somalia, where the terrorist group’s stronghold is located, but that the public’s assistance is needed to locate his exact whereabouts.

Mostafa was originally charged in a three-count indictment in 2009, but the superseding indictment unsealed Monday expands the scope of the original charges through 2017, according to prosecutors.

Anyone with information regarding Mostafa’s whereabouts is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or send tips online to tips.fbi.gov. Information can be provided anonymously.