(POWESHIEK COUNTY, Iowa) — The lead agent who investigated the disappearance and murder of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts testified Tuesday that there was no doubt in his mind who killed her.
“Cristhian Rivera murdered Mollie Tibbetts,” special agent Trent Vileta said in court.
Vileta rejected a theory by Cristhian Bahena Rivera’s attorneys that he was framed for Tibbetts’ kidnapping and murder as part of a sex trafficking ring. The attorneys claim the alleged sex trafficking ring was investigated and that resulting evidence was withheld from them by law enforcement authorities.
“I don’t remember any tips that she (Tibbetts) was the victim of sex trafficking, but I didn’t see all of them either,” Vileta said.
A jury convicted 27-year-old Bahena Rivera in May of first-degree murder, but his sentencing was postponed after his attorneys requested a new trial in order to be allowed to review evidence in any ongoing investigations into sex trafficking in and around Poweshiek County, Iowa, where Tibbetts went missing in July 2018. Her body was discovered in an Iowa cornfield about a month after she vanished.
During Tuesday’s hearing, which lasted more than four hours, Bahena Rivera’s attorneys called Arne Maki to testify about a conversation he said he had in July 2020 with a 21-year-old inmate while they were both being held at the jail in Keokuk County, Iowa.
Maki, 46, who is now serving a prison sentence for domestic violence, claimed the inmate who he befriended told him that he and another man killed Tibbetts on the orders of a sex trafficker after she was kidnapped and brought to a sex trafficking “trap house.”
“He’s like, ‘yeah, I killed her,'” Maki testified about the inmate who defense attorneys named in court documents and during the hearing. “I’m like, ‘I don’t believe you.'”
Maki claimed the man then mentioned Bahena Rivera, a Mexican national who was in the country illegally and working at a dairy in Poweshiek County when he was arrested and charged with Tibbetts’ killing.
“He’s like, ‘We set him up.’ He’s like, ‘It’s a sex trafficking case gone wrong, and I stabbed her to death and put her in a tarp, me and my Black friend that don’t speak English good.'”
Maki testified that he doubted the inmate’s story until he saw TV news reports on Bahena Rivera’s testimony during his trial.
Bahena Rivera claimed he was kidnapped at his home near Brooklyn, Iowa, by two armed masked men, who ordered him to drive to where Tibbetts was expected to be jogging. He claimed that when they found Tibbetts, one of the men stabbed her to death, put her body in the trunk of Bahena Rivera’s car and made him drive to a cornfield, where the young woman’s badly decomposed remains were discovered a month after she went missing.
Bahena Rivera said that while he placed Tibbetts’ body in the cornfield, he did not kill her.
“Right there my conscience told me that I should say something, even if it’s not true,” Maki said, explaining why he told authorities about the inmate’s purported confession.
But under cross-examination from prosecutor Bart Klaver, Maki said he did not know that the inmate who confessed to him was in a rehab facility under court supervision at the time Tibbetts disappeared.
Judge Joel Yates, who presided over Bahena Rivera’s trial, told the attorneys he will make a written decision as soon possible on the defense motion for a new trial.
Earlier this month, Yates rejected the motion to allow Bahena Rivera’s attorneys an opportunity to review evidence in ongoing sex trafficking investigations in Poweshiek County and in the case of a missing 11-year-old boy, Xavior Harrelson, who vanished in May from his home in Poweshiek County. The defense attorneys suggested that the man who they allege operated the sex trafficking “trap house” once had been the boyfriend of Harrelson’s mother.
Earlier this year, it was announced that Saturday Night Live cast member Pete Davidson would be playing Joey Ramone in an upcoming Netflix biopic about the late Ramones legend. Speaking now with Billboard, Davidson reveals how he’s approaching the role.
“I’m about to start music lessons and voice lessons and all this other s***,” Davidson says, adding that the project is a “dream come true.” “Hopefully I do it justice and I hope I don’t let anybody down.”
Davidson will also co-write the film, which is based on and named after the book I Slept with Joey Ramone, written by Joey’s brother, Mickey Leigh.
“I’m definitely taking it very serious and I’m doing my research,” Davidson says. “Because Joey did a bit of everything and we’re following his life, so you’re going to see a bit of that.”
That research includes spending time with Leigh and “the whole Queens crew” from the brothers’ hometown neighborhood in New York City.
“It’s a lot, man,” Davidson says. “It’s gonna be really interesting and I’m excited.”
Peter Frampton, Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers and Guns N’ Roses‘ guitarist Slash are among the rockers sharing their support for Road Recovery, an organization that uses music to help teens battling addiction and other at-risk youth.
Each musician filmed a video testimonial speaking about Road Recovery’s mission and how music can help, especially during a particularly difficult time like the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Frampton’s clip, he notes, “Road Recovery’s creative staff and our amazing young people are in need of some encouragement to keep on keeping on,” and asks supporters to “film a short video of hope and inspiration to our dedicated staff of music professionals and the amazing youth in our…programs,” which then will be shared across the organization’s social media platforms.
In Rodgers’ video, the singer notes, “I’ve learned that you have to stay positive in your heart, body and soul, [and] steer clear of booze and drugs. You’re still OK to rock and roll.” He also recommends checking out the Qi Gong for Beginners series on YouTube. “It’s a moving meditation,” he says. “It’s very simple, but very profound.”
In Slash’s testimonial, the GN’R guitarist notes that he’s been hanging with and jaming with kids and adults in the Road Recovery programs for a while, and he finds it “really inspirational…to see how [they] get inspired by the arts are able to “turn [their lives] around.”
Other artists offering testimonials include Metallica‘s James Hetfield and Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello. You can watch all the videos now via the Road Recovery YouTube channel.
(TOKYO) — Gymnasts have been showering support for the U.S. women’s gymnastics team after winning the silver medal in Tokyo — and particularly for Simone Biles and her decision to withdraw from the competition.
Biles competed on the opening rotation of vault Tuesday in the team competition but decided not to compete on any further apparatus.
She had been under an immense amount of pressure going into these Olympic Games, saying earlier this week she felt “the weight of the world on my shoulders at times.”
“No injuries, thankfully, and that’s why I took a step back because I didn’t want to do something silly out there and get injured,” Biles said in a press conference following the team competition. “So I thought it was best if these girls took over and did the rest of the job, which they absolutely did.”
The team — consisting of Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum, in addition to Biles — went on to win silver, keeping up the American streak of team medals they’ve held since 1992.
And many gymnasts have spoken up to cheer on the team and voice their support for Biles’ decision, one that put a spotlight on mental health and, perhaps, showed a changing culture for the harsh world of gymnastics, which has faced a reckoning since the Larry Nassar abuse trial.
Biles posted on Instagram she was “SO proud” of her teammates as “they stepped up when I couldn’t.”
“You girls are incredibly brave & talented! I’ll forever be inspired by your determination to not give up and to fight through adversity!” she wrote.
“You will forever be loved,” Chiles commented in return, adding that Biles was a “huge inspiration on all of us” and that they “wouldn’t have done it without you.”
Morgan Hurd, a favorite to make the U.S. team before an injury, wrote on Instagram, “Words cannot describe how proud I am. This team went out there with resilience, grit, and grace. Only they know how hard this sport is not only physically but mentally, let alone on the Olympic stage. Love you guys endlessly.”
Danell Leyva, an Olympic medalist on the men’s side, tweeted, “If anyone says a silver medal at the Olympics isn’t enough, come step outside I just wanna talk.”
Before competition started, Biles’ former teammate Aly Raisman had tweeted, “Just a friendly reminder: Olympic athletes are human & they’re doing the best they can. It’s REALLY hard to peak at the right moment & do the routine of your life under such pressure. Really hard.”
“Wish I could give you the biggest hug,” Raisman posted on Instagram after the final. “Sending you all the love & support.”
Rachael Denhollander, a former gymnast and the first woman to publicly accuse Nassar of abuse, praised Biles in a series of tweets that also cheered on those who have been working to change the culture of gymnastics.
“Today, an athlete and her coach chose her safety first,” Denhollander wrote. “This is the change we’ve worked so hard for. If you can’t see it, you’re part of the problem.”
She added, “Simone has a right to protect her privacy, her mind, her story. She earned her spot in Tokyo. She has the right to protect herself. She doesn’t owe you all anything.”
Many people — including Denhollander — referenced Kerri Strug in comparison to Biles’ decision to withdraw. In 1996, Strug famously competed at the Olympics on an injury, an act that has been both praised for her resilience and used as an example of the pressure gymnasts face to compete.
Strug herself wrote she was “sending love to you @Simone_Biles,” along with an emoji of a goat (because Biles is the G.O.A.T.) and a heart.
She went on to send her congratulations to the whole team, saying, “Great respect for all your hard work and support for each other. We are proud of you!”
Amid the discussion, there was also, of course, lots of celebrating.
“Beyond proud of this team. In my heart, we are winners. We fought til the end and didn’t give up,” Lee posted on Instagram. “Tonight may not have gone how we wanted it to but we stepped up to the plate and give it our all. Best team I could’ve asked for.”
And she gave the team a new nickname — the Fighting Four.
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol held its first hearing Tuesday in which lawmakers heard dramatic, emotional accounts from law enforcement officers who defended the building against a pro-Trump mob.
“We’re going to revisit some of those moments today, and it won’t be easy,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said to open the hearing, while praising the officers for holding the line. “But history will remember your names and your actions.”
Here are key takeaways from the first hearing:
All witnesses feared for their lives during attack
The four officers testifying — Capitol Police officers Aquilino Gonell and Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Department officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges — flatly rejected any attempts to rewrite history on Jan. 6 and downplay the attack as one that shouldn’t be investigated further, telling lawmakers they all feared for their lives on Jan. 6.
When Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., asked Gonell to respond to former President Donald Trump’s calling the crowd “loving.” Gonell placed responsibility on him for sending his supporters to the Capitol.
“It’s a pathetic excuse for his behavior for something that he himself helped to create — this monstrosity,” Gonell said. “I’m still recovering from those ‘hugs and kisses’ that day.”
Hodges, who referred to the rioters as “terrorists,” detailed the weapons used against officers that day including police shields, batons, hammers, a sledgehammer, flag poles, tasers, pepper spray, bear and wasp spray, copper pipes, rocks, table legs broken down, guardrails, cones and “any items they can get their hands on.”
“There were over 9,000 of the terrorists out there with an unknown number of firearms and a couple hundred of us, maybe. So we could not — if that turned into a firefight, we would have lost,” he said. “And this was a fight we couldn’t afford to lose.”
Hodges, who was crushed in a doorway that day, recalled how he had to wrestle with one rioter who tried to take his baton and how another shouted at him, “‘You will die on your knees.'”
Gonell also described the day as a scene “from a medieval battlefield.”
“I could feel myself losing oxygen and recall thinking to myself, ‘this is how I’m going to die, trampled defending this entrance,'” he said.
But the officers said they didn’t think twice about defending the Capitol and democracy, as traumatic as the experience was for them, their colleagues and families.
“Us four officers, we would do Jan. 6 all over again,” Dunn said. “We wouldn’t stay home because we knew what was going to happen. We would show up. That’s courageous. That’s heroic. So what I ask from you all, is to get to the bottom of what happened.”
“The rioters called me traitor, a disgrace, and shouted that I—an army veteran and a police officer—should be executed,” Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell says during Jan. 6 select committee hearing. https://t.co/KuT3vxIg91pic.twitter.com/knJ8oRxRqg
The lawmakers choked up at times during the officers’ testimony including Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who told them, “You guys may like individually feel a little broken … but you guys won.”
“Democracies are not defined by our bad days. We’re defined by how we come back from bad days,” he said.
Racial slurs heard at riot haunt hearing room: ‘I guess it is America’
Racial slurs haunted the hearing room as officers recounted chants made by the mob, moving some officers to tears and prompting some lawmakers to hang their heads.
Dunn recounted the racist verbal abuse he endured from rioters in emotional testimony and said it was the first time he had been called the n-word in uniform.
“I’m a law enforcement officer and I do my best to keep politics out of my job, but in this circumstance I responded, ‘Well, I voted for Joe Biden, does my vote not count? Am I nobody?'” he said he told rioters who falsely shouted at him the election was stolen.
Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn on racial abuse from rioters: “It’s so disheartening and disappointing that we live in a country with people like that, that attack you because of the color of your skin just to hurt you.” https://t.co/pZb3doEsvxpic.twitter.com/rVGupmH6hP
“That prompted a torrent of racial epithets,” Dunn said. “One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled “You hear that guys, this n***** voted for Joe Biden.”
Dunn, who also witnessed a Confederate flag carried through the Capitol, said that other Black officers shared similar stories of racial abuse from the day.
“I sat down on the bench in the Rotunda with a friend of mine, who is also a Black Capitol Police officer and told him about the racial slurs I endured. I became very emotional and began yelling, ‘How the blank could something like this happen? Is this America?'” he said. “I began sobbing.”
When Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., posed the same question to Dunn later, the officer said, “I guess it is America. It shouldn’t be.”
Committee looking to subpoena Trump, lawmakers
Cheney, in her opening statement, made clear the committee is open to subpoenaing the former president, White House aides and members of Congress as they create a timeline of the day.
“We must also know what happened every minute of that day in the White House. Every phone call, every conversation, every meeting, leading up to, during, and after the attack. Honorable men and women have an obligation to step forward,” she said.
Adding to that pressure, all four witnesses told lawmakers they wanted an investigation into those in power who may have aided and abetted rioters.
Dunn used an analogy with a hitman to describe his expectations, in an apparent nod to the former president, after the witnesses spent three and a half hours recounting chants of “Trump sent us,” among others.
“If a hitman is hired and he kills somebody, the hitman goes to jail, but not only does the hitman go to jail but the person who hired them does. There was an attack carried out on Jan. 6 and a hitman sent them,” he said. “I want you to get to the bottom of that.”
Thompson said at a press conference after the hearing that the committee could be brought back for another hearing during the House’s August recess, which starts Friday. The panel said its work is just beginning.
The Department of Justice said in letters to former Trump officials, and provided to congressional committees, that they can participate in the investigations into the Jan. 6 attack, according to sources and letters reviewed by ABC News earlier Tuesday.
Cheney and Kinzinger poke holes in GOP arguments against committee
The two Republicans on the panel spent their questioning time pushing back on some of the most prominent Republican talking points after Jan. 6 — including that the rioters were not violent and that whatever took place at the Capitol paled in comparison to violence perpetrated by antifa during racial justice protests.
“I condemn those riots and the destruction of property that resulted — but not once did I ever feel that the future of self-governance was threatened like I did on Jan. 6,” Kinzinger said. “There was a difference between breaking the law and rejecting the rule of law, between a crime, even grave crimes and a coup.”
Kinzinger also defended his choice to serve on the committee, saying it’s “not in spite of my membership in the Republican Party, but because of it, not to win a political fight, but to learn the facts and defend our democracy.”
Cheney reminded in her opening statement that she and other lawmakers preferred to establish an independent commission to investigate the attack, but that effort was “defeated by Republicans in the Senate.”
“That leaves us where we are today. We cannot leave the violence of Jan. 6 and its causes uninvestigated,” she said. “If those responsible are not held accountable, and if Congress does not act responsibly, this will remain a cancer on our constitutional republic.”
Rep. Liz Cheney: “We must overcome the many efforts we are already seeing to cover up and obscure the facts…No member of Congress should now attempt to defend the indefensible.”
The former No. 3 House Republican also reminded that her GOP colleagues had “recognized the events that day for what they actually were” in the days after the attack, even if members downplay it now.
Ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, Republicans who boycotted the select panel said the hearing should focus on the fact that Capitol Police were unprepared for Jan. 6. But because they gave up their ability to participate in the hearing, they couldn’t lead the discussion in their preferred direction — or challenge Democrats’ lines of inquiry the way Cheney and Kinzinger picked apart some of their claims.
Officers, while praised for heroism, blast lawmakers for partisan politics
While the officers were praised throughout the hearing for holding the line on Jan. 6, with lawmakers on the panel thanking them for their protection, the officers didn’t hold back when describing their disapproval in how partisan politics has muddied the search for the truth.
Fanone, the Metropolitan Police Department officer who was dragged down the Capitol steps, beaten with a flagpole, tased repeatedly and taunted with chants of “kill him with his own gun,” called out lawmakers on Tuesday who have blocked efforts for an investigation.
Officer Michael Fanone slams the table during Capitol riot hearing: “The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!”
“What makes the struggle harder and more painful is to know so many of my fellow citizens…are downplaying or outright denying what happened.” pic.twitter.com/1mGO4hHTFG
“The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful,” he said, slamming his fist on the witness table. “I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room, but too many are now telling me that hell doesn’t exist or that hell actually wasn’t that bad.”
“Nothing — truly nothing — has prepared me to address those elected members of our government who continue to deny the events of that day, and in doing so betray their oath of office,” he added.
Gonell said of the former president downplaying the day, “It’s insulting, it’s demoralizing because everything that we did was to prevent everyone in the Capitol from getting hurt.”
Dunn said that the investigation is innately political because of the landscape surrounding the attack, but that it shouldn’t stop lawmakers from seeking the truth.
“It’s not a secret that it was political. They literally were there to stop the steal. So when people say it shouldn’t be political, it is. It was and it is. There’s no getting around that,” he said.
“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are being lauded as courageous heroes and while I agree with that notion, why? Because they told the truth? Why is telling the truth hard?” he asked. “I guess in this America, it is.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden said Tuesday afternoon that a mandate to require all federal employees to be vaccinated is now “under consideration.”
He said this one day after the Department of Veterans Affairs moved to require all health workers get a COVID-19 vaccine and shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited new science on the transmissibility of the delta variant and reversed its mask guidance.
“It’s under consideration right now,” Biden said when asked by ABC News if the federal government would expand the vaccine mandate. “But if you’re not vaccinated, you’re not nearly as smart as I thought you were.”
BREAKING: Pres. Biden tells ABC’s @sarahkolinovsky that he is considering a mandate for all federal employees to get COVID-19 vaccines.
As he wrapped a visit to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ABC News also asked the president about Tuesday’s new guidance from the CDC, recommending masks for vaccinated Americans in public, and whether it would cause confusion, but Biden continued to focus on those who remain unvaccinated.
“We have a pandemic because the unvaccinated — and they’re sowing enormous confusion,” he said. “The more we learned — the more we learn about this virus and the delta variation, the more we have to be worried, concerned.”
“And the only one thing we know for sure, if those other 100 million people got vaccinated we’d be in a very different world. So get vaccinated. If you aren’t, you’re not nearly as smart as I thought you were,” Biden continued.
Following his remarks, Biden released a statement saying the CDC decision is “another step on our journey to defeating the virus” and that he’d have more to say on Thursday when he will “lay out the next steps” to get more Americans vaccinated.
Regarding the CDC recommendation for students, Biden said it’s “inconvenient,” but gives them a chance to learn “with their classmates with the best available protection.”
He also acknowledged concerns that as cases rise and mask guidance is reversed that the U.S. could be heading back to restrictions and closures but said in the statement, “We are not going back to that.”
“In the meantime, more vaccinations and mask wearing in the areas most impacted by the delta variant will enable us to avoid the kind of lockdowns, shutdowns, school closures and disruptions we faced in 2020. Unlike 2020, we have both the scientific knowledge and the tools to prevent the spread of this disease,” he said.
Earlier Tuesday, the CDC cited new science on the transmissibility of the delta variant and reversed its mask guidance to recommend that everyone in areas with high levels of COVID, vaccinated or not, wear a mask, as the virus continues to spread rapidly across the U.S.
“This new science is worrisome and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendation,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters during a briefing on Tuesday afternoon.
Throughout Washington there was a quick return to mask wearing for many who had grown accustomed to being without.
Vice President Kamala Harris, meeting with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Native American voting rights advocates Tuesday afternoon, wore a mask indoors for the first time since May 13.
Asked about the development, Harris gave a little shrug.
“None of us like wearing masks,” she said bluntly.
She noted that most people dying at this point are not vaccinated.
“People need to get vaccinated. That’s the only way we’re going to cut this thing off. No one likes wearing a mask. Get vaccinated. That’s it,” she said, then hitting her hand on the table for emphasis.
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett and Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The sole copy of Wu-Tang Clan’s “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” owned by one-time hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli until he forfeited it following his securities fraud conviction, has been sold, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, said Tuesday.
The terms of the sale were confidential, as was the identity of the buyer, but the proceeds will be applied to the balance of the nearly $7.4 million Shkreli owes in forfeiture.
“Through the diligent and persistent efforts of this office and its law enforcement partners, Shkreli has been held accountable and paid the price for lying and stealing from investors to enrich himself. With today’s sale of this one-of-a-kind album, his payment of the forfeiture is now complete,” said Jacquelyn Kasulis, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Shkreli, best known for hiking the price of a life-saving drug when he was a pharmaceutical executive and for trolling critics on social media, was convicted of securities fraud in 2017 for orchestrating a series of schemes to cheat investors in two hedge funds he controlled as well as a biopharmaceutical company then known as Retrophin. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.
The millions the government is seeking in forfeiture “represents a conservative computation of the proceeds Shkreli personally obtained as a result of his three different securities fraud crimes of conviction,” prosecutors wrote at the time.
Shkreli was ordered to forfeit the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album, which he purchased for $2 million at an auction in 2015. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, it includes a hand-carved nickel-silver box as well as a leather-bound manuscript containing lyrics and a certificate of authenticity.
In September 2017, after he had been convicted but before the district court ordered the forfeiture of his assets, Shkreli attempted to sell the album through an online auction, prosecutors said.
The album, which has been considered one of the most valuable musical albums in the world, is subject to various restrictions, including those related to the duplication of its sound recordings.
ABC News’ Celia Darrough contributed to this report.
This year, sibling duo Chloe x Halle created individual Instagram accounts to express their creative interests in music, fashion and natural hair. In her latest interview withTeen Vogue,Chloe Bailey credits their mother, CourtneyBailey, for encouraging her to wear her hair in dreadlocks confidently.
“I definitely have to give props to my mom, because ever since I was about three years old, I’ve had locs,” Chloe says. “I’ve grown up in Atlanta, Georgia, and I thought nothing was really different with my hair from the other kids.”
The 23-year-old entertainer tells Teen Vogue that she began to realize “early on in the industry, having locs wasn’t really normal. But I feel like when you are confident with yourself, and you own it, then everyone else has to catch up to that”
She adds, “I’m so grateful to be given a platform as a young Black woman with locs.”
Chloe has kept fans on Instagram enthused with photos of her stunning hairstyles, thirst traps of herself in bikinis, covers of hip-hop and R&B songs, and videos of herself making music on a beat board. Up next, the grown-ish cast member is set to star in Jane, the debut feature film from Creator+, a streaming platform geared toward Gen Z and digital creators.
Rege-Jean Page is walking in 007’s footsteps. No, the Bridgerton star hasn’t been cast as James Bond — yet — but he’s taking the lead role in The Saint, an adaptation of a 1960s U.K. spy series that once was a Bond-precursor for the late Roger Moore.
The Hollywood Reporter says Page will co-produce and star as Simon Templar, a suave, wealthy man who moonlights as a master of disguise and expert thief who, in true Robin Hood fashion, usually steals from the wealthy to the benefit of the poor.
Moore’s role in the 1960s series led to him play James Bond on the big screen in seven films, succeeding Sean Connery and George Lazenby before him.
The Simon Templar character was created by author and screenwriter Leslie Charteris, and was featured in a series of books, radio shows and films over the years.
Most recently, Val Kilmer played Templar in the big-screen version of The Saint in 1997.
