(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is expected to sit for a deposition Wednesday as part of the New York attorney general’s civil investigation into his family real estate business, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The deposition in the New York civil case follows an escalation in the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified material. On Monday, the FBI searched Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
Wednesday’s expected testimony, which had been delayed from July due to the death of Trump’s ex-wife Ivana, comes after a months-long court fight during which Trump was held in contempt as he fought the attorney general’s subpoena.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has called the investigation politically motivated.
A spokesperson for New York Attorney General Letitia James declined to comment when contacted by ABC News.
Trump himself appeared to confirm his deposition in a post on his social media outlet, Truth Social, saying: “In New York City tonight. Seeing racist N.Y.S. Attorney General tomorrow, for a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. history! My great company, and myself, are being attacked from all sides. Banana Republic!”
Two of the former president’s grown children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, have already been deposed as part of the civil probe, the sources said.
Trump argued unsuccessfully that he should not have to sit for a deposition while the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was conducting a parallel criminal investigation. While the Manhattan DA’s case remains active, two senior prosecutors who had been leading it resigned earlier this year over the lack of an indictment.
James has said her office has uncovered evidence of potentially fraudulent conduct in the way the Trump Organization valued its real estate holdings when seeking loans and when asking for tax breaks.
Lawyers in her office have said in court that the office is nearing a decision on an enforcement action.
(NEW YORK) — Two soldiers from Fort Benning have died and three others were injured in a weather-related event in northern Georgia, an official said Tuesday.
The incident took place at Yonah Mountain, located near Dahlonega, a spokesperson for the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning Public Affairs Office said in a statement.
The three injured soldiers were treated by an Army medic on the scene before being transferred to a local hospital, the spokesperson said, where they remain under the care of hospital staff.
Their names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
This is the second event involving weather and Army fatalities in Georgia in three weeks.
On July 20, a U.S. Army Reserve soldier was killed and another nine were injured following a lightning strike while training at Fort Gordon.
(IRVINE, Calif.) — A Southern California dermatologist was arrested last week for allegedly poisoning her husband, authorities said.
Jack Chen, 53, has accused his wife Yue “Emily” Yu, 45, of poisoning him with Drano, a brand of drain cleaner, on three separate occasions in July, even catching the alleged act on tape and handing it over to the Irvine Police Department, according to court documents.
Yu’s defense attorney David Wohl told ABC News that the allegations against his client are “absolutely and unequivocally” false.
Chen had reportedly gotten sick for over a month when he suspected Yu of putting drain cleaner in his tea and lemonade, according to police and court documents.
Police said Chen “captured video evidence supporting his suspicion” and turned it over to authorities. Following a search warrant, Yu was arrested.
Yu was booked at Orange County Jail, but charges have yet to be filed. Jail records show that Yu posted bond and was released from jail on Aug. 5.
Police said Chen “sustained significant internal injuries but is expected to recover” after being allegedly poisoned.
Chen, who’s a radiologist, filed a domestic violence temporary restraining order on Aug. 5 against his wife of 10 years for himself and on behalf of the couple’s two children. He alleged that Yu was physically, mentally and emotionally abusive toward their children and him.
He also alleged that Yu’s mother, Yuojng “Amy” Gu, was abusive toward him and the children.
According to court documents, Chen is asking for sole custody of their two children.
“She has never, in any way, shape or form, tried to harm her husband or her children,” Wohl added in a statement.
Wohl said that he and Yu believe that Chen accused her of poisoning him so he could gain an advantage in their divorce and custody cases.
“There is absolutely nothing done in those videos that were in any way illegal,” Wohl told ABC News. “The videos do not depict her trying to poison her husband or harm anyone in her family.”
Yu is the director of dermatology with Mission Heritage Medical Group.
“This incident is a domestic matter which occurred in Irvine, and we want to reassure our community that there has been no impact on our patients,” Mission Heritage Medical Group said in a statement to ABC News.
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — Police have arrested a suspect in connection with the murders of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Investigators tracked down the Volkswagen sedan with tinted windows allegedly driven by the suspect in the most recent homicide, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina announced during a tweet Tuesday afternoon news conference.
The car was stopped by New Mexico State Police near Santa Rosa, New Mexico — about 115 miles east of Albuquerque — after a tip from a community member following the release of the description of the car, Albuquerque Deputy Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock told reporters at Tuesday’s news conference.
The driver of the car, identified as 51-year-old Muhammad Syed, was then detained at a traffic stop, Medina said.
The most recent murder occurred on Friday, when Naeem Hussain, a 25-year-old native of Pakistan, was found dead from a gunshot wound near Truman Street and Grand Avenue in Albuquerque’s Highland Business neighborhood, police said.
Syed has been charged with murder in the deaths of Naeem Hussain and Aftab Hussein, Medina said, adding that investigators are working with the district attorney’s office on potential charges for the murders of the other two men.
Investigators do not have any indications yet that the murders present a serial killer case or are the result of a hate crime, authorities said.
Syed moved to the U.S. from Afghanistan several years ago and has since been arrested multiple times for domestic violence, police said, adding that those charges were dismissed. His son was also questioned but was later released, police said.
The Albuquerque Police Department’s homicide unit began noticing similarities between the murders that occurred on Friday and July 26, such as related shell casings found at both scenes that were likely fired from the same gun, Hartsock said.
After Syed was arrested, police executed a search warrant at his home, where multiple firearms were recovered and are now being tested, Hartsock said, adding that one gun found inside the home and another found inside the car match two from the crime scenes and are the basis for the charges that have been brought so far.
Police are compiling more evidence to build a case with the prosecutor’s office for the murders of Muhammad Afzaal Hussain and Ahmadi, Hartsock said.
“We think there might be involvement in two other homicide cases,” he said. “Those are still considered open and active.”
The pattern matches the murder of Ahmadi in November, police said, adding that there is a possible personal connection between Ahmadi and Syed.
Investigators are also looking into whether there are other cases that could be similar, in order to identify whether there may be a “really active public threat” from someone targeting the community, Hartsock said.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has sent additional state police to provide support to the Albuquerque Police Department and FBI, she announced on Saturday.
The community has “never gone through anything like this before,” Ahmad Assed, president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico, said during a press conference Saturday, Albuquerque ABC affiliate KOAT reported.
“This is really a surreal time for us. We’re in fear of the safety of our children, our families,” Assed said.
In a statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, commended the Albuquerque Police Department for apprehending the suspect.
“We welcome the arrest of a suspect in this horrific shooting spree and we commend law enforcement for their efforts at the local, state and federal levels,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said. “We hope the news that this violence has been brought to an end will provide the New Mexico Muslim community some sense of relief and security.”
CAIR had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for the murders.
(NEW YORK) — One person is dead and “multiple” others are injured after a bus overturned on the New Jersey Turnpike Tuesday, according to state police.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(UVALDE, Texas) — The frustrations of a community still reeling from a mass shooting were on full display Monday night as a procession of Uvalde residents confronted school district leaders over their response to the massacre that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers.
Trustees of the Uvalde CISD School Board convened the special session to present plans for the upcoming school year, including upgrading security measures and an announcement that all students K-12 would be offered the opportunity to attend classes virtually.
But during the open forum portion of the evening, attention returned to the fallout from the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School.
“We want results,” one man said. “Has anybody lost their job? Has anyone been terminated?”
“We still need answers,” a woman added.
“This is not going to be swept under the rug,” said another.
More than two-and-a-half months since the shooting, several of the roughly 100 attendees sought basic answers about the law enforcement response, including chain-of-command communication.
When board trustee JJ Suarez, a former police officer who responded to Robb Elementary, told one questioner that he did not remember who told him the shooting was “a barricade situation” and claimed not to have heard gunshots from inside the school, members of the audience heckled him.
“I heard the shots,” one woman shouted before imitating the sound of gun shots. “I still hear that sound.”
Suarez replied that his failure to ask if children were still inside the classrooms will “haunt [him] every day.”
Trustees also faced questions about school district police chief Pete Arredondo and why a decision whether to fire him has not yet been made. The board responded that it is following “due process,” adding that it is considering multiple new dates for a hearing on Arredondo’s future.
Arredondo remains on leave while an investigation into the conduct of law enforcement during the shooting on May 24 marches forward. Last month, the Uvalde school district postponed a closed hearing to consider whether to terminate Arredondo as its police chief and has not yet set a new date.
A special committee in the Texas legislature issued a report last month that found Arredondo had “failed to perform or to transfer to another person the role of incident commander.” Arredondo previously told the Texas Tribune he did not consider himself the on-scene commander during the shooting.
After multiple media outlets, including ABC News, reported on a demotion Arredondo received in 2014 at a prior job, Superintendent Dr. Hal Harrell acknowledged that he made the decision to hire Arredondo and said he contacted previous employers but was not told about the demotion.
Harrell also laid out several new initiatives taken by the board to shore up security across the school district in the coming year. Those updates include:
33 Texas DPS officers being assigned to UCISD
500 cameras being installed across the district
Campus monitor role to be created — this person will walk school grounds throughout the day, noting lock, gate and door statuses on an iPad that the district will then be able to review
Each school will have a single point of entry all students, faculty and guests must utilize
An audit on the district’s Wi-Fi set to be completed Wednesday
Other notable speakers at Monday’s session included a woman who said her daughter with special needs cannot reasonably attend class virtually, and a rising fourth grader in the school district who requested upgrades to school lighting, automatic door locks and the installation of ballistic glass. (Harrell had said earlier in the meeting they were still looking for funds for ballistic glass.)
After fielding concern about the conduct of school administrators and law enforcement moving forward, Harrell said “it’s going to take a while to regain that trust.”
“The trust has been damaged. The trust has been broken,” Harrell said. “It’s going to take all of us to fix it.”
(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — Police have arrested a suspect in connection with the murders of four Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Investigators tracked down the Volkswagen sedan with tinted windows allegedly driven by the suspect in the most recent homicide, the Albuquerque Police Department announced Tuesday afternoon.
The driver of the car has been detained and is the “primary suspect” for all four murders, police said.
The most recent murder occurred on Friday, when Naeem Hussain, a 25-year-old native of Pakistan, was found dead from a gunshot wound on Friday near Truman Street and Grand Avenue in Albuquerque’s Highland Business neighborhood, police said.
Mohammad Ahmadi, a Muslim man from Afghanistan, was killed outside a business he ran with his brother last November, police said.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has sent additional state police to provide support to the Albuquerque Police Department and FBI, she announced on Saturday.
The community has “never gone through anything like this before,” Ahmad Assed, president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico, said during a press conference Saturday, Albuquerque ABC affiliate KOAT reported.
“This is really a surreal time for us. We’re in fear of the safety of our children, our families,” Assed said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(DALLAS) — Jurors heard closing arguments Tuesday in the capital murder trial of Yaser Said, who is accused of fatally shooting his two teenage daughters, 18-year-old Amina Said and 17-year-old Sarah Said, in a taxi in the Dallas area in 2008.
Said was placed on the FBI’s most-wanted list and evaded arrest for more than 12 years. Said, who had worked as a cab driver, was arrested in August 2020 in Justin, Texas. He entered a not guilty plea and faces an automatic life sentence if convicted.
Prosecutors claim Said, who is Muslim, murdered his daughters because he was upset that the girls were dating.
“He wouldn’t even let these girls go to a movie. He wouldn’t let them date,” a prosecutor said during closing statements Tuesday.
ABC News local affiliate WFAA reported that police have described the murders as “honor killings” — defined as the killing of a relative, especially a girl or woman, who is perceived to have brought dishonor on the family in certain cultures.
During the trial, prosecutors read a December 21, 2007, email Amina wrote to her history teacher 10 days before she and her sister were killed, saying their father “made our lives a nightmare” and that she and her sister wanted to run away.
“I am so scared right now,” Amina wrote, according to prosecutors. “OK, well as you know we’re not allowed to date and my dad is arranging my marriage. My dad said I cannot put it off any more and I have to get married this year.”
“He will, without any drama nor doubt, kill us,” she also wrote.
The girls, along with their mother and their boyfriends, fled their Texas home to Oklahoma on Christmas Day 2007, four days after Amina sent the email. Witnesses said the girls returned to the Dallas area on New Year’s Eve when their mother, Patricia Owens, said Said convinced her to return home.
The girls’ bodies were found on New Year’s Day 2008 in a taxi cab prosecutors said Said drove.
Last Wednesday, the prosecution played the 911 call Sarah allegedly made the night of her death. During the call, a woman can be heard frantically screaming that her father had shot her and that she was dying.
During her testimony in court last Thursday Owens pointed to her ex-husband, calling him “that devil.” She testified that Said was controlling and abusive throughout their relationship, adding that she and her daughters left him several times over the years, but they always returned out of fear.
Owens declined to comment on the case until her ex-husband is convicted, she told ABC News.
In a letter written to the judge overseeing the case, Said said while he disapproved of his daughters’ “dating activity,” he denied killing the girls.
“I was upset because in my culture it’s something to get upset about,” said Said, who took the stand Monday. He testified that he immigrated to the U.S. from Egypt in 1983 and later became a U.S. citizen.
Said told jurors that the evening his daughters were killed, he was taking them to dinner because he wanted to smooth things over and “solve the problem.”
However, Said claims he left the vehicle, fleeing into a wooded area before the girls were killed because he thought someone wanted to murder him, testifying that he spotted an unknown person in a car stalking them while they were driving to dinner.
Said said he did not turn himself in after the murders because he didn’t think he would get a fair trial.
The defense team claims that Said was targeted by law enforcement because of his Muslim faith and cultural beliefs.
“Everybody has a preference and how they discipline their kids, just like they have a preference for what kind of food they eat, what kind of people they date, what religion they want to practice,” Baharan Muse, Said’s defense attorney, said in closing arguments Tuesday. “Discipline does not mean you murdered your children. Your culture does not mean you murdered your children.”
Said’s defense team alleged prosecutors sought to “generalize” and “criminalize an entire culture, to fit their narrative.”
The prosecution rejected the claim that Said was unjustly accused for his religious beliefs.
“If you intentionally or knowingly cause the death of another in Dallas County, we are coming for you. Period. You will be prosecuted. Period. It has nothing to do with your race or religion,” prosecutor Lauren Black said in her closing argument.
(TRUCKEE, Calif.) — Lindsey Rodni-Nieman got a text late Friday night from her teenage daughter, saying she was planning to leave a party in about 45 minutes and would be coming “straight home.”
“I told her to be safe and that I loved her. And she said, ‘OK, mom, I love you, too,'” Rodni-Nieman recalled in an interview with ABC News on Monday. “She never came home.”
Kiely Rodni, 16, was last seen early Saturday around 12:30 a.m. local time near the Prosser Family Campground in the small, Northern California town of Truckee, some 20 miles north of Lake Tahoe. She was at a party with more than 100 people when she vanished along with her vehicle, a silver 2013 Honda CRV with California license plates.
Her phone has been out of service since then, according to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the ongoing investigation and search.
“Her cellphone went dead and became virtually untraceable shortly after,” Angela Musallam, public information officer for the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, told ABC News during an interview Monday.
When Rodni’s mother awoke that morning to find her daughter still not home and her car missing from their driveway, panic began to set in.
“I called her and sent her texts too, and she didn’t answer,” Rodni-Nieman said. “That’s when I knew something was wrong.”
She said she doesn’t believe her daughter ran away because all her clothes and belongings are still at home, and “it was already so out of character” for her to not call or text back.
Rodni’s friend, Sami Smith, said she was the last person to speak with her at the party early Saturday.
“She was having a fun time at a party, just being a teenager,” Smith told ABC News during an interview Monday. “Everything she drank, I drank out of, and there was nothing that seemed off about her.”
“I never expected this to happen ever,” she added. “Nobody in this town did.”
With no trace Rodni or her car, detectives are now investigating the case as a possible abduction.
“Our detectives are looking into any and every possibility about Kiely’s whereabouts,” Musallam said. “We are only treating this case as an abduction because we have not yet located her vehicle.”
“We’ve received dozens of leads since early Saturday morning, and our detectives continue to investigate each and every single one of them,” she added. “We have no plans to leave any stone unturned until we get Kiely home.”
Other local, state and federal agencies, including the Truckee Police Department, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office, the California Highway Patrol and the FBI, are assisting the Placer County Sheriff’s Office’s in the investigation, according to Musallam.
On Tuesday, helicopters from the California Highway Patrol and the Placer County Sheriff’s Office continued to conduct aerial searches for the teen and her car.
Authorities, as well as Rodni’s family, are urging anyone who attended the party to cooperate with the investigation. In particular, investigators are asking for any photographs or videos from that night to help them piece together a timeline. A $50,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to Rodni’s safe return.
“We’re just begging, begging for you to please come forward and share your story,” Rodni-Nieman said.
Anyone with information about Rodni or her whereabouts can call the Placer County Sheriff’s Office’s tip line at 530-581-6320 and select option seven. Callers can remain anonymous.
(NEW YORK) — Back-to-school season is in full swing — and running up against the ongoing national teacher shortage.
In 2019, the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, estimated that by 2024, the U.S. would need more than 300,000 teachers to fill the demand for educators nationwide.
Several factors have worsened the problem in the last two years: Teachers have retired or walked away from the profession citing the coronavirus pandemic, higher levels of disrespect from students and parents, excessive lesson planning and safety concerns among other things.
Dr. Christy Foust, a former teacher, said a low salary was just one factor that drove her out of the profession.
“Would you stay in your job if you’re not paid enough based on your education and your experience?” Foust told ABC affiliate WFTS-TV in Tampa, Florida.
Teacher Aubriele Jarman said once she realized her work life was negatively impacting her personal life, she decided to step back from her job.
“I was definitely very emotional about leaving the kids, but I just started to realize that I needed to do it for myself,” Jarman told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “I felt a lot of guilt leaving because I know that there is that shortage.”
In the midst of this crisis, many school districts around the country say they are struggling to fill dozens to hundreds of open positions.
“As an elementary principal back in the ’90s, I would have 100 to 150 applicants for a kindergarten to second grade position. And I’m currently sitting at five for both,” Rich Appel, superintendent for the School District of Horicon in southeastern Wisconsin, told Green Bay, Wisconsin, ABC affiliate WBAY-TV.
The American Federation of Teachers or AFT, a union that represents approximately 1.7 million educators, presented several solutions in a July report to address the teacher and staff shortages, including increased pay and benefits, improving teacher-administrator relations, decreasing class sizes, reducing standardized testing and paperwork, and diversifying the teacher workforce.
“We have a teacher shortage because we have a shortage of respect for public school educators. A shortage of the professional working conditions which makes it difficult for teachers and other staff to meet their students’ needs. We have a shortage of pay for what is arguably the most important job in the world. And we have politicians who want to ban books and censor curriculum rather than help teachers meet the social, emotional, and academic needs of kids,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement to GMA, in part referencing efforts by a growing number of state, local and federal politicians to ban certain topics from the classroom, including references to racism and LGBTQ+ issues.
“The teacher shortage is the direct result of the culture war and the shortage of conditions, respect and pay — and we are not going to fix the one without addressing the others,” Weingarten continued.
“Some people will say this will never happen, it costs too much money,” Weingarten added. “But many things can be started today at no cost — taking steps to build a culture where professionals work together and with parents to provide the best possible education to students, reduce paperwork and focus more on teaching than testing. These are all important steps that can help make this a more sustainable, respected profession.”
How school districts are responding to the shortage
Education officials across the country are testing a variety of methods to combat teacher fatigue and boost morale, in addition to upping pay and benefits. Here are a few ways school districts have tried addressing the problem so far:
Financial incentives
Some school districts are providing bonuses and stipends to retain and attract new teachers, in addition to boosting base pay.
District of Columbia Public Schools, in the nation’s capital, is offering teachers signing bonuses of $2,500 if they commit to teaching one of the “highest need content areas,” such as special education, elementary education and visual and performing arts.
In Nevada, school districts including Clark County School District, the fifth largest school district in the U.S. where students returned to school Monday, is offering $5,000 retention bonuses for teachers who stay for the 2022-2023 school year and $4,000 relocation bonuses for teachers who move over 100 miles or out of state in order to teach in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas. Washoe County School District in the northwestern region of the state is offering teachers a one-time stipend of $1,500 for new teachers and $2,500 for returning teachers.
For the upcoming school year, the Austin Independent School District is offering a $2,000 retention stipend for teachers and other staffers. The district is also adding on a $500 signing bonus for pre-K teachers and physical education teaching assistants as well as a $1,000 signing bonus for special education teaching assistants.
Relaxed qualifications
Some states are dropping certain requirements for those interested in teaching. Individuals in Arizona, for example, will no longer need a bachelor’s degree to teach after Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill last month. They can start working within a classroom before they finish a degree program and while they’re in school to complete their degree.
In Arizona, as well as Alabama, teachers with expired licenses will also have an easier time renewing them, with Alabama offering teachers a one-time renewal option without any academic requirements.
Shortened school weeks
Some school districts, especially those in rural areas, have switched to four-day school weeks already; Marshfield R-I School District in southwestern Missouri and Jasper Independent School District in southeastern Texas, will switch to a four-day week starting this fall.
John Seybold, superintendent of the Jasper Independent School District, told GMA in April that teacher burnout “has been an issue for a long time, but since COVID, it has seemed to expand, and it’s becoming more and more of an issue.”
“The four-day week kind of makes it a little more manageable for them because there’s so much pressure placed on our teachers,” he said at the time. “As a school district, ultimately the best thing we can do for kids is put the best possible teacher in front of them every day.”
Housing help
It’s no secret that the cost of living has increased and inflation remains high enough that some districts have looked into providing a longer-term solution for bringing in and keeping teachers in their local communities.
Jefferson Union High School District in Daly City, California, south of San Francisco, for instance, has developed a housing complex for teachers and district staff that offers more than 120 rental units at below-market rates.
Recruiting foreign teachers
Okeechobee County School District in central Florida has recruited teachers from overseas, and has hired educators from multiple countries, including India, the Philippines, Mexico, Jamaica and Peru, in part to help ease their local teacher shortage.
