(NEW YORK) — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent charged in the nonfatal shooting earlier this year of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis was arrested in Texas on Friday, more than a week after prosecutors announced the charges, officials in Minnesota said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Former Attorney General Pam Bondi told members of the House Oversight Committee Friday that the Justice Department had released all the documents required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, but that she did not lead every aspect of the process, according to a copy of her prepared opening statement.
After a tumultuous year at the DOJ that was largely defined by her controversial handling of the Epstein files, Bondi participated in a nearly four-hour closed-door interview with the House Oversight panel Friday.
“As the head of a large Department with broad responsibilities, I did not lead every aspect of this effort or conduct that document review myself,” Bondi said, according to her prepared opening statement. “I delegated oversight over this process to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.”
Following her appearance, Bondi, in a social media post, disputed Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia’s claim that she “continues to push all of the investigation and the blame on Acting AG Todd Blanche.”
“NOT TRUE,” Bondi posted. “I praised Acting AG Blanche’s management of this Herculean task. I said his ethics are beyond reproach and that he is an incredible Attorney General.”
The second Trump cabinet official to testify behind closed doors as part of the Oversight Committee’s yearlong Epstein probe, Bondi was expected to face questions about reneging on her promise to publicly release the DOJ’s files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which ultimately prompted Congress to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act forcing the release of millions of documents.
As Bondi walked into the hearing room Friday morning, a group of Epstein survivors shouted, “Tell the truth.” She did not answer questions from reporters.
“Before we start today, I want to reiterate what I have said many times regarding the Department’s handling during my tenure as Attorney General of the voluminous materials that are now commonly known as the Epstein Files,” Bondi told the panel according to her prepared remarks. “To the best of my knowledge, the Department produced everything required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.”
“There were redaction errors,” the former attorney general said. “But since day one of this process, this Department has been committed to accountability and transparency.”
Trump removed Bondi as attorney general in April after sources said he grew frustrated with her handling of the Epstein files and the unsuccessful prosecutions of his perceived political opponents.
“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” Trump wrote on social media announcing her departure. “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future.”
Earlier this week, Axios reported that Trump had appointed Bondi to serve on an advisory panel on AI policy, tasked with coordinating cooperation between the government and tech leaders.
In an unusual arrangement, a DOJ spokesperson said that Bondi would be accompanied during Friday’s transcribed interview by Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon and other DOJ personnel, in order to “assist the Committee in understanding the Department’s role in implementing and complying with the Epstein Files Transparency Act during her tenure.”
“Because former Attorney General Bondi oversaw the Department at the time the Act was enacted and carried out, DOJ’s presence is solely to ensure accurate representation of Department processes, facilitate any necessary clarifications, and support a complete factual record for the Committee,” a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement earlier this week.
The DOJ originally sought to have Bondi avoid appearing by arguing that the subpoena the committee issued “no longer obligates her to appear” since she left the role of attorney general. Bondi ultimately agreed to testify voluntarily after the top Democrat on the committee introduced a resolution to hold her in contempt for failing to appear.
Shortly after beginning her tenure as attorney general last year, Bondi faced immediate pressure from Trump’s MAGA followers and others to begin releasing the DOJ’s files from its investigations of Epstein and his associates. Speaking to Fox News in February 2025, Bondi said Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review” and said the release of the files was a “directive by President Trump.”
However, when the DOJ released the “first phase” of the Epstein files that month — inviting, with great fanfare, conservative influencers to receive the files — it was determined that nearly every document released was already public. By July, the Department of Justice and FBI said in a joint memo that no further documents would be released, citing victim privacy and the assertion that the documents warranted no further investigations — a decision that sparked backlash from much of the MAGA base.
“To that end, while we have labored to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein and ensured examination of any evidence in the government’s possession, it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” the memo said.
Bondi later defended her statement about Epstein’s client list by clarifying she was referring to the Epstein files generally along with other files released by the Trump administration, including documents related to JFK and MLK Jr. The DOJ/FBI memo also said that their review of the files “revealed no incriminating ‘client list'” and no evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals.
Despite the memo stating that no further investigation was warranted, Trump in November ordered Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to Bill Clinton and other prominent Democrats. At the time, Bondi said the DOJ would “pursue this with urgency and integrity” and assigned the matter to the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.
The Justice Department’s subsequent release of Epstein files following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act prompted bipartisan criticism when the DOJ improperly redacted files — both exposing victim identities while concealing other information — and declined to release millions of additional files by claiming they were duplicative, privileged or contained sensitive victim information.
Bondi’s deputy and successor, now-acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, acknowledged the release of sensitive victim information was “horrible” and “inexcusable.”
He said the DOJ is finished investigating Epstein.
“And so I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward,” Blanche said in April.
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(NEW YORK) — A fire erupted on Amtrak work trains in a Hudson River tunnel between New York and New Jersey early Friday, suspending Penn Station service for NJ Transit and Long Island Rail Road commuters.
LIRR service has since resumed, but the NJ Transit suspension into Penn Station is ongoing.
Two Amtrak work trains collided in the Hudson River tunnel at about 1:25 a.m., impacting the electrical system and igniting a fire, said Janno Lieber, head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
One NJ Transit passenger called the experience “frightening,” telling ABC News, “Someone yelled there was a fire on the track … there was a very loud explosion that shook the train and caused the lights to go out. We didn’t move for maybe 8 to 10 minutes.”
“I rely on NJ Transit to get to work, so I am now deeply concerned about how I will commute safely moving forward,” the New Jersey resident said.
Amtrak service is also impacted. Amtrak said trains south of Penn Station are suspended until at least noon while “lengthy delays” are expected north of Penn Station.
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(NEW YORK) — Two people died in a collision between a rider on an electronic scooter and another on a bike on the bike path during the morning commute on a New York City bridge on Thursday.
Francis del Valle, 39, who was operating the scooter, and Dmytro Stechenko, 35, who was on a pedal bike, were heading in opposite directions on the Queensboro Bridge around 8:20 a.m. when they collided, according to police.
Both victims were rushed to New York Presbyterian-Queens, where they were pronounced dead.
Del Valle was driving the Blade GT II scooter, according to investigators, which sells for $1,700 and is advertised to go “zero to 53 [miles per hour] in 3.9 seconds.”
The electric stand-up scooter is illegal to operate on New York City streets because it can reach speeds of more than 50 miles per hour, in excess of what the city allows for e-mobility devices.
Following the incident, it appeared the NYPD was directing bicyclists to use the south outer roadway, according to investigators. That part of the bridge has been pedestrian-only since the bridge’s lanes were reallocated in May 2025.
The north outer roadway used to be shared by cyclists and pedestrians, but that was becoming too crowded and dangerous. Two dozen people were injured there between 2021 and 2025.
Rachel Huynh, a friend of del Valle, told WABC that he left behind a wife and two children.
“His wife is in bad shape, especially with the kids. I can’t imagine. He was a really great husband to her, and they’ve been going out to vacations, exploring the whole world,” she told WABC.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement that the city is reviewing the crash and reiterated that fast e-scooters are illegal in the city.
“Every New Yorker deserves to feel safe, and the Mamdani administration will continue to work to remove these illegal devices from our streets and bring accountability to micromobility use,” the spokeswoman said.
Transportation safety groups also echoed the mayor’s office’s warning.
“Our thoughts are with their families, friends, and community. Crashes like these are entirely preventable. Scooters that travel this quickly have no place in our bike lanes,” Ben Furnas, the executive director of the non-profit Transportation Alternatives, said in a statement.
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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Virginia on Friday ordered a temporary freeze on any payments coming from the Trump administration’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund” as she considers arguments in a lawsuit brought by a former Jan. 6 prosecutor to block the fund permanently.
The order from U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema specifically bars the administration “from taking any further action pursuant to the creation or operation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund,” including transfers of money or consideration of claims from individuals who may argue they are victims of political persecution.
The $1.776 billion fund, announced last week, was established by the Justice Department to compensate those who allege they were wrongly targeted under the Biden administration.
It was created in exchange for President Donald Trump agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS as well as two civil claims for $230 million related to the Russia collusion investigation he faced during his first term in office and the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate — sparking accusations of self-dealing and a bipartisan uproar over the possible use of taxpayer money to pay rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, pressed about the fund earlier this month, said, “Anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they’re a victim of weaponization.”
Friday’s order did not weigh in on the legal merits of the case brought by former Jan. 6 prosecutor Andrew Floyd and other plaintiffs suing under the basis that the fund is unlawfully discriminatory under claims that it would only presumably benefit political allies of President Trump.
Judge Brinkema ordered an expedited briefing schedule in the lawsuit and a hearing set for Friday, June 12, to consider whether to grant a longer term freeze barring the administration from moving forward with the fund.
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(DENALI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE, Ala.) — A search and rescue mission is underway after four people fell while climbing Mount McKinley at 18,200 feet, according to the National Park Service.
Mount McKinley — located in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve — is the tallest peak in North America, according to the NPS.
The climbers, part of a seven-member climbing team, fell in the vicinity of Denali Pass, according to the NPS.
The NPS received a report of the incident at around midnight Thursday after two other climbers were evacuated by helicopter from the mountain at around 11 p.m. Wednesday, as part of a separate incident, the NPS said.
Three members of the climbing team returned to High Camp at 17,000 feet after attending to their fallen partners, the NPS said.
The NPS said it is actively responding to the incident. Weather conditions on the mountain are improving and will soon enable helicopter operations, the NPS said.
The extent of the climbers’ injuries and their condition remains unknown, the NPS said.
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(STAFFORD COUNTY, Va.) — Five people were killed and 34 were injured in a massive crash between a bus and six vehicles on Interstate 95 in Virginia early Friday morning, according to state authorities.
The accident unfolded at about 2:35 a.m. on I-95 south in Stafford County, about 45 miles south of Washington, D.C., the Virginia State Police said.
As traffic slowed for a work zone, a bus did not slow down and struck six vehicles, killing five people in the cars, police said.
Thirty-four people were taken to hospitals, including three with critical injuries, police said.
The crash initially closed all lanes of I-95, Virginia’s Department of Transportation said, causing massive delays for the Friday commute. Northbound lanes have since reopened.
Charges are pending, police said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — An immigration law attorney whose career has spanned over two decades said he has never experienced a hearing like the one he had in Annandale, Virginia.
“Normally, these master calendars will have 10 people, maybe sometimes 15, but usually in that range. The judge opened the hearing and said well, we have 100 cases on today’s docket,” attorney Joseph M. Perez told ABC News.
Master calendar hearings are when immigrants in deportation proceedings first appear before a judge and are informed of their rights and the charges they may be facing. It’s a crucial first step in deportation proceedings that can occur on an individual basis or in groups of a few people.
But in recent weeks, attorneys like Perez said they are seeing as many as 100 people slotted for the same time with little to no notice in advance, prompting them to call these hearings “mega masters,” which they say could be a new tactic by the Trump administration aimed at deporting as many people as quickly as possible.
Multiple attorneys told ABC News that, in some cases, scheduled master calendar hearings are being abruptly canceled and consolidated into larger proceedings.
On Monday, attorney Briana Carlson represented a client in Virginia at one of the hearings and the judge announced she had 80 cases on the docket, she said. Her client’s hearing had originally been scheduled for July.
“He was scheduled for a hearing in July, which we knew about, but we were preparing an application for relief, and so my paralegal happened to check the portal for that relief, and that’s when she found the new hearing date that had been advanced to today, which no one received notice of,” she said.
Carlson said that when she reached out to an immigration court in Sterling, Virginia, for a different case that had also been rescheduled, a clerk notified her that the court had received a nationwide directive to advance master calendar hearings if they’re scheduled in July or later.
A spokesperson for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an agency within the Department of Justice that oversees immigration courts, did not deny the existence of the directive, and in part, said the agency “prioritizes the timely completion of all cases.”
“Unnecessary delay hurts both aliens with meritorious claims and the American public who wish to see aliens with non-meritorious claims removed as quickly as possible. As it continues to add new immigration judges, EOIR will continue to make scheduling adjustments to ensure all cases are handled in a timely and lawful manner,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
NPR was first to report on the so-called “mega masters” hearings.
Reports of the massive hearings across the country have prompted the American Immigration Lawyers Association to issue guidance to lawyers, urging them to constantly check their online calendars to see if their cases have been rescheduled.
Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, Practice and Policy Counsel at AILA, says there’s growing concern that the Trump administration is placing individuals who do not have attorneys in these consolidated hearings in an attempt to force them to miss a hearing, which can automatically trigger a final order of removal.
“The goal is for people that are not showing up, they’re going to get an in absentia removal order, and that is going to help the court kind of clear their backlog, as we know, is one of the main goals of this administration,” Dojaquez-Torres said.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration proposed a rule that, if approved, would increase the fee for migrants ordered removed in absentia from $5,130 to $18,000. Critics of the fee increase say it’s an attempt to force undocumented immigrants to self-deport.
In the notice announcing the proposed rule, the administration said the fee is meant to help reimburse ICE for the costs of immigration enforcement.
Perez said that the shift to larger master calendar hearings is shortsighted.
“They want to accelerate things, but there’s also existing scheduling orders. Scheduling orders are issued by every court; they lay out how the case is going to proceed, what days you have to send the documents for. They’re advancing these cases to a date upon which you do not have enough time to comply with the scheduling order, so they really haven’t thought about the whole thing here,” he said.
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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — After a tumultuous year at the Department of Justice largely defined by her controversial handling of the Epstein files, former Attorney General Pam Bondi is set to participate in a transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee on Friday.
The second Trump cabinet official to testify behind closed doors as part of the Oversight Committee’s yearlong Epstein probe, Bondi is expected to face questions about reneging on her promise to publicly release the DOJ’s files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which ultimately prompted Congress to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act forcing the release of millions of documents.
Trump removed Bondi as attorney general in April after sources said he grew frustrated with her handling of the Epstein files and the unsuccessful prosecutions of his perceived political opponents.
“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” Trump wrote on social media announcing her departure. “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future.”
Earlier this week, Axios reported that Trump had appointed Bondi to serve on an advisory panel on AI policy, tasked with coordinating cooperation between the government and tech leaders.
In an unusual arrangement, a DOJ spokesperson said that Bondi will be accompanied during Friday’s transcribed interview by Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon and other DOJ personnel, in order to “assist the Committee in understanding the Department’s role in implementing and complying with the Epstein Files Transparency Act during her tenure.”
“Because former Attorney General Bondi oversaw the Department at the time the Act was enacted and carried out, DOJ’s presence is solely to ensure accurate representation of Department processes, facilitate any necessary clarifications, and support a complete factual record for the Committee,” a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement earlier this week.
The DOJ originally sought to have Bondi avoid appearing by arguing that the subpoena the committee issued “no longer obligates her to appear” since she left the role of attorney general. Bondi ultimately agreed to testify voluntarily after the top Democrat on the committee introduced a resolution to hold her in contempt for failing to appear.
Shortly after beginning her tenure as attorney general last year, Bondi faced immediate pressure from Trump’s MAGA followers and others to begin releasing the DOJ’s files from its investigations of Epstein and his associates. Speaking to Fox News in February 2025, Bondi said Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review” and said the release of the files was a “directive by President Trump.”
However, when the DOJ released the “first phase” of the Epstein files that month — inviting, with great fanfare, conservative influencers to receive the files — it was determined that nearly every document released was already public. By July, the Department of Justice and FBI said in a joint memo that no further documents would be released, citing victim privacy and the assertion that the documents warranted no further investigations — a decision that sparked backlash from much of the MAGA base.
“To that end, while we have labored to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein and ensured examination of any evidence in the government’s possession, it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” the memo said.
Bondi later defended her statement about Epstein’s client list by clarifying she was referring to the Epstein files generally along with other files released by the Trump administration, including documents related to JFK and MLK Jr. The DOJ/FBI memo also said that their review of the files “revealed no incriminating ‘client list'” and no evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals.
Despite the memo stating that no further investigation was warranted, Trump in November ordered Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to Bill Clinton and other prominent Democrats. At the time, Bondi said the DOJ would “pursue this with urgency and integrity” and assigned the matter to the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.
The Justice Department’s subsequent release of Epstein files following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act prompted bipartisan criticism when the DOJ improperly redacted files — both exposing victim identities while concealing other information — and declined to release millions of additional files by claiming they were duplicative, privileged or contained sensitive victim information.
Bondi’s deputy and successor, now-acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, acknowledged the release of sensitive victim information was “horrible” and “inexcusable.”
He said the DOJ is finished investigating Epstein.
“And so I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward,” Blanche said in April.
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(NEW YORK) — A new economic report identified a “remarkable” rise in food insecurity, potentially explaining gloomy consumer outlooks despite strong economic fundamentals.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a report on Wednesday identifying uncertain access to adequate food and consumer pessimism on the rise in certain vulnerable groups across the country.
The report, which relies on newly collected data from the Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE), found a “remarkable increase in food insecurity, particularly among lower-educated and lower-income households and households with young children.”
It also identified “a contemporaneous increase in pessimism among the same groups, along with a sharp decline in job-finding expectations.”
The report found that between late 2025 and early 2026, there was an increase in households reporting they had to skip meals, use food banks, rely on SNAP benefits or dip into savings to cover groceries, which are up 2.9% from a year ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics noted earlier this month.The survey showed that the percentage of those who didn’t have enough food or kids missed a meal more than doubled from June 2020 to early 2026.
More specifically, it found that, of households with income under $50,000 a year, 16% reported not enough food or kids missing meals in late 2025 and 19.7% recorded those circumstances in early 2026. That’s up from just 6.7% in mid 2020.
The survey noted that 40.1% of the same subset of respondents reported dipping into their savings in early 2026 versus 37.8% in late 2025 and 29% in mid-2020.
Among respondents with a high school diploma, the survey found 10.7% had received food donations in mid-2020, compared to 18.8% in late 205 and 20.9% in early 2026.
Food insecurity, the SCE report notes, “is associated with poor health outcomes as well as lower educational attainment, worker productivity, and lifetime earnings.”
The report also highlighted the existence of “solid economic fundamentals,” such as “low unemployment, historically high household net wealth, and resilient consumer spending” despite a growing sense of consumer pessimism, suggesting “a ‘K-shaped’ economy, in which consumption growth in recent years has been driven largely by higher-income and college-educated households while lower-income households have seen fewer gains.”
It says the findings concerning food insecurity are likely a helpful guide to understanding generally low consumer sentiment, despite an economy with “solid economic fundamentals.”
“While not necessarily causal, the observed positive association between food insecurity and overall consumer pessimism, together with the increase in the incidence of food insecurity, especially among households at the bottom of the K-shape, point to a potential explanation for the unusually low recent levels of consumer sentiment at a time when the hard economic data paint a more positive picture,” the report reads.
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