National

(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Pam Bondi and other senior leadership of the Justice Department were caught off guard Thursday by news that the Trump-installed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia had presented to a grand jury seeking an indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

While Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and other DOJ officials had expected Lindsey Halligan would move forward in seeking to indict James, against the recommendation of prosecutors in the office who had investigated for months the claims she committed mortgage fraud, they were not informed until after Halligan had already presented the case, sources said.

“The Justice Department is united as one team in our mission to make America safe again and as stated previously Lindsey Halligan is fully supported by the AG, DAG, and the entire team at Main Justice,” a Justice Department spokesperson told ABC News in a statement.

The news that Halligan was making her presentment was not news, however, to Ed Martin — who was appointed to several senior leadership positions at DOJ by President Trump after his nomination to be the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. failed to earn support from Republican senators earlier this year.

Martin, who goes by his self-described nickname “Eagle Ed” posted on his ‘X’ account Thursday morning an image of an eagle flying over the Brooklyn Bridge – and reposted the image Thursday evening following news of James’ indictment.

As ABC News previously reported, Martin and Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who initially made the criminal referral to DOJ over James’ mortgage applications, have in recent weeks clashed with senior leadership of the department as they’ve demanded more aggressive actions to prosecute President Trump’s political enemies.

In a Truth Social post last month, President Trump publicly urged Bondi to move “now” to prosecute his enemies and said he was appointing Halligan to lead the office and “get things moving.”

One former senior DOJ official said it would be extraordinary for leadership at the department to not be informed of a pending indictment of a major political figure like James, which would more typically be led by the department’s Public Integrity Section. Staff in that office has been eliminated to just two officials down from roughly 30 since Trump’s inauguration, according to sources.

Despite her being initially caught off guard by Halligan’s presentment, Bondi posted on ‘X’ following James’ indictment, “One tier of justice for all Americans.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(BALTIMORE) — Attorneys for wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia will be in court in Maryland on Friday for an evidentiary hearing in which government witnesses are expected to testify about the steps taken to remove him from the United States.

The hearing comes after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis appeared exasperated on Monday with government attorneys who could not answer if there was additional evidence about plans to deport him to Eswatini, beyond letters sent to Abrego Garcia’s lawyers.

The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday notified Abrego Garcia that it planned to deport him to Ghana. The agency told his attorneys later that the notice was “premature” and asked them to disregard the document. 

Ghana’s foreign minister, Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, said in a Friday X post that the West African nation is not accepting Abrego Garcia.

“This has been directly and unambiguously conveyed to US authorities,” he wrote. “In my interactions with US officials, I made clear that our understanding to accept a limited number of non-criminal West Africans, purely on the grounds of African solidarity and humanitarian principles would not be expanded.”

The Salvadoran national’s attorneys have argued that if there are no current plans for his imminent removal, Abrego Garcia should be released from detention.

Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison, despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution. The Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which his family and attorneys deny.

He was brought back to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, to which he has pleaded not guilty. After being released into the custody of his brother in Maryland pending trial, he was again detained by immigration authorities and is currently being held in Pennsylvania.

The government has told Abrego Garcia’s attorneys that it intends to deport him to a country other then El Salvador, including possibly Uganda or Eswatini.

As Abrego Garcia awaits trial in Tennessee, Judge Xinis has currently banned the government from removing him from the United States.

A separate hearing in that case is scheduled for Friday, where his criminal attorneys in Tennessee will discuss discovery and Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss that case for vindictive and selective prosecution.

In a filing on Thursday, Robert McGuire, the acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, said he will not produce communications between senior government officials, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, about the prosecution of the case.

“The United States submits that any communications between senior government actors themselves about this case, but which did not influence the Acting United States Attorney because they did not reach him or were not communicated to him would not be discoverable,” McGuire said.

The government said in the filing that Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have to show that McGuire was “prevailed upon” by another entity like the Department of Homeland Security or the Justice Department to seek an indictment that otherwise would not have been brought.

McGuire previously said in a sworn affidavit that he never received any direction from the DOJ “that was unethical or inappropriate.”

“Undersigned counsel intends to submit a supplemental affidavit that he has had no such communications from any source: the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, or anyone,” McGuire said.

Abrego Garcia’s criminal trial on the Tennessee charges is scheduled for Jan. 27.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(CHICAGO) — Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the team chaplain for the Loyola University Chicago basketball team who became a national celebrity during the school’s 2018 underdog March Madness run, has died at 106.

The university confirmed her death in a statement on social media.

“This is a tremendous loss of someone who touched the lives of so many people. We appreciate everyone’s thoughts & prayers during this difficult time,” the university said in a statement.

In an announcement last month, just a month after her 106th birthday, the university said Schmidt was retiring and stepping back from official duties at the school.

In a letter to students and other members of the university community sent on her birthday in August, Schmidt said she was unable to travel to campus to celebrate due to a “bad summer cold and other health issues.”

She wrote, “That makes me very sad, but you can still celebrate,” and encouraged students to “make new friends. Talk to your old friends. Enjoy your move-in and your preparations for class.”

Schmidt became a nationally recognized figure during the 2018 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, when Loyola University Chicago, which entered March Madness as an 11-seed, reached the Final Four in San Antonio, Texas.

Schmidt’s presence courtside — always adorned in the team’s maroon and gold colors — and her enthusiastic cheering on of the team drew attention from fans and national broadcasters.

“In many roles at Loyola over the course of more than 60 years, Sister Jean was an invaluable source of wisdom and grace for generations of students, faculty, and staff,” Loyola President Mark C. Reed said in a statement. “While we feel grief and a sense of loss, there is great joy in her legacy. Her presence was a profound blessing for our entire community and her spirit abides in thousands of lives. In her honor, we can aspire to share with others the love and compassion Sister Jean shared with us.”

Born Dolores Bertha Schmidt in San Francisco on Aug. 21, 1919, she joined the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1937, taking the name Sister Jean Dolores, according to a university obituary.

A basketball player in her youth, Schmidt later became a nun, then a grade school teacher, and started girls’ sports programs before her time on the college basketball sidelines.

She came to the university’s Lake Shore campus in 1961 to teach at Mundelein College, which affiliated with Loyola in 1991.

She first became an academic adviser for the men’s basketball team in 1994 and later became the team chaplain.

She released a memoir in 2023, “Wake Up with Purpose!: What I’ve Learned in My First Hundred Years.”

In a 2023 interview with ABC News, Schmidt said, “I think sports [are] very important because they help develop life skills, and during those life skills you’re also talking about faiths and purpose.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — New York Attorney General Letitia James has been indicted on at least one count of alleged fraud, becoming the second political figure in a span of two weeks to face prosecution after President Donald Trump’s public demand that the Justice Department move “now” to charge his political enemies, according to sources. 

The contents of the indictment were still not unsealed as of Thursday late afternoon. 

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan presented evidence to a federal grand jury Thursday seeking an indictment on charges of mortgage fraud against James, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. 

A spokesperson for James’ legal team declined to comment to ABC News.

Halligan was named U.S. attorney by Trump after Trump ousted her predecessor, Erik Siebert, who sources say had expressed doubts internally about bringing cases against James and former FBI Director James Comey. 

As ABC News first reported, sources said Siebert and other career prosecutors in Virginia determined there was no clear evidence James had knowingly committed mortgage fraud when she purchased a home in the state in 2023, but Trump officials nevertheless pushed Siebert to bring criminal charges against her. 

“It looks to me like [James] is very guilty of something, but I really don’t know,” Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office in September when he confirmed he wanted Siebert “out” of the job. 

James, as New York AG, successfully brought a civil fraud case against Trump last year and leads multiple lawsuits challenging his administration’s policies. 

Trump administration officials have argued that James committed mortgage fraud because one of the documents related to her 2023 home purchase, they say, falsely indicated the property would be her primary residence. The investigation began after Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, sent the DOJ a criminal referral about James in April. 

However, investigators determined that the document — a limited power of attorney form used by James’ niece to sign documents on her behalf when James closed on the home — was never considered by the loan officers who approved the mortgage, sources said.

Halligan last month brought an indictment against Comey on charges of making a false statement and obstruction related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020, just days after Trump issued a public demand for his Justice Department to act “now” to bring prosecutions against Comey, James, and California Sen. Adam Schiff.

“Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, and Leticia???” Trump wrote in a social media post directly addressing Attorney General Pam Bondi. “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”

Comey pleaded not guilty on Wednesday and will seek to have his case dismissed for vindictive prosecution.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

A Connecticut woman appeared in court on Thursday after she was charged with allegedly attempting to poison a man with whom she shares a child by putting antifreeze in his wine at his home in Ridgefield, according to the Connecticut State Police.

Kristen Hogan, 33, was arrested on Friday and charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of interference with an officer after she admitted to pouring ethylene glycol — a “poisonous ingredient within antifreeze and other household products” — in a bottle of wine from which the man drank, according to an affidavit obtained by ABC News.

During her court appearance on Thursday, Hogan’s bail was set at $1 million. She was told not to contact several individuals placed under protective orders and required to surrender all firearms.

On Sept. 12, police interviewed the 34-year-old male victim, who had been hospitalized “sometime in early August” and underwent a blood test that revealed he had ethylene glycol in his system, the affidavit said.

The victim, who has not been identified, said during the interview that he had “family over for dinner and that his stepmother had brought an unopened bottle of wine,” officials said. The victim and his family drank some of the wine, with the remainder being “corked and placed in the fridge at the end of the night,” officials said.

Then on Aug. 10, five days after the family dinner, the victim said he “consumed a small amount of the same wine,” went to bed and then “woke up in the middle of the night multiple times and became increasingly ill,” officials said.

At 6 a.m. the next day, the victim “woke up vomiting and called his father for advice,” who directed him to call his mother, who lived in the area, officials said.

Once at his home, the victim’s mother found her son “slurring his words, staggering, and vomiting,” and then decided to take him to the hospital, officials said.

The hospital “initially believed he was experiencing a stroke” but then determined that the victim was “exhibiting signs of an ethylene glycol poisoning,” the affidavit said. The victim was then placed on dialysis and admitted to the ICU, officials said.

Once authorities arrived at the hospital, the victim told them that he believed Hogan, with whom he shares a child, had poisoned the wine “based off the fact her phone uploaded data” to his Wi-Fi router a few days earlier and that she was the “last person other than himself to be in the residence prior to him drinking the already opened wine,” officials said.

The victim told officials he “believed that a motive for him being poisoned is the fact that Hogan would become the full owner of the residence and would gain full-time custody of their child,” officials said.

On Sept. 30, a final lab report indicated that “ethylene glycol was detected in the wine,” officials said.

Police also went through Hogan’s phone, which revealed searches for “various lethal amounts of poisons” and “how much mono ethylene glycol would kill you” after the victim was hospitalized, the affidavit said.

In an interview with police, Hogan said she and the victim had been separated since May but that she had “more recently started living back at the same residence” where the victim lived, officials said.

Hogan also said she “never intended to kill him, but just wanted to make him sick as payback for being mentally abusive,” the affidavit said.

Officials said Hogan had also claimed she was in Rhode Island when she was supposed to be in court with the victim on Aug. 7 regarding a complaint she had filed but that she was actually at the victim’s residence, to which she had full access, the affidavit said.

Hogan also told officials that she has poured “a very small amount” of the same substance into the man’s iced tea bottle on a separate date, the affidavit said.

“If undetected or untreated, ethylene glycol ingestion can cause serious or fatal toxicity,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a statement to ABC News, Hogan’s lawyer, Mark Sherman, said it is “premature to comment on any specifics.”

“What we know is that Kristen is a loving mother who misses her children dearly right now. These are just accusations and we will be diligently investigating and defending her against these claims,” Sherman said in a statement.

Her next court date is scheduled for Dec. 2.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(PHILADELPHIA) — A 23-year-old Philadelphia woman has now been missing for nearly a week, with police saying she was being harassed by an unknown individual before disappearing.

Kada Scott was last seen by her mother on Saturday evening when she was leaving for work at a nearby nursing home, police said.

Scott arrived at work but left “prior to her shift’s completion,” and has not been seen since, John Craig, captain of the Philadelphia Police Department, said during a press conference on Wednesday. It was not clear what time Scott left work, but officials said her shift typically was from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

“This is completely out of character,” Craig said during the press conference.

She was reported missing to police on Sunday, with law enforcement saying they have “some concern, more so than usual” regarding her disappearance due to worrying phone calls she was receiving.

“In the days leading up to her disappearance, Ms. Scott related to her family and friends that an unknown individual or person had been harassing her via phone,” Craig said.

Craig said officials have not identified the person who was allegedly harassing Scott, but are continuing to investigate “very thoroughly.”

Police are canvassing the neighborhood for video, interviewing friends and family and looking at Scott’s cellphone data — including taking a “deep dive” of her social media — in their efforts to locate Scott. Officials are also speaking to Scott’s co-workers at the nursing home, Craig said.

“We have no cellphone activity or social media activity, and she has not reached out to family or friends,” Craig said.

Officials were able to recover Scott’s vehicle, which was located in the parking lot of the nursing home where she worked, Craig said.

Scott, who officials described as a “very bright, energetic woman,” is 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighing 120 pounds and has brown eyes and black hair, police said.

“I just need her to come home and be safe. That’s what I fear — she’s not safe,” Scott’s mother, Kim Matthews, told Philadelphia ABC station WPVI.

Scott’s name has also been entered into the National Crime Information Center database, Craig said.

Anyone who has information on Scott’s whereabouts is urged to call 215-686-3353, police said.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LOS ANGELES) — A woman has been accused of using dating apps to meet men and then burglarize their homes, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Adva Lavie is wanted for a string of burglaries in which she allegedly targeted older men, posing as a romantic companion on virtual dating platforms and social media, according to officials.

The suspect is described as 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing 104 lbs. with brunette hair and hazel eyes. Lavie is believed to drive a black Porsche SUV or white Mercedes-Benz.

She is also known to use the aliases Mia Ventura, Shoshana or Shana, according to officials.

When contacted by ABC News, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said they had no additional information to provide about the suspect or her alleged crimes.

Officials are asking anyone with information about Lavie or incidents in which she may have been involved to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department or Los Angeles Police Department.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(PUTNAM COUNTY, Ind.) — An Indiana woman who was reported missing last week following a “suspicious” fire in her house has been found alive, authorities said. 

Britney Gard, 46, last had contact with her family the evening of Sept. 30, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office. She was considered a missing endangered person “due to her unknown whereabouts,” the sheriff’s office said.

Following an extensive investigation, she was found in a wooded area about 2 1/2 miles from her home, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday evening. She was being cleared by medical staff and no additional details were available, the sheriff’s office said.

Authorities responded to Gard’s home on Oct. 1, following a 911 call for a fire at her home in Bainbridge, located about 40 miles west of Indianapolis, the sheriff’s office said. Smoke was reported coming from the residence around 7:40 p.m., the office said.

Fire crews extinguished the blaze, which investigators believe is “suspicious in nature,” Putnam County Sheriff Jerrod Baugh said in a statement on Friday. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Baugh said in an update on Wednesday.

No one was found in the fire-damaged home, and attempts by family and friends to contact Gard following the fire have been unsuccessful, the sheriff’s office said. She was not located following a drone-assisted search of the area and searches of a pond on the property following the fire, the sheriff’s office said.

Gard was supposed to attend her daughter’s volleyball game on Oct. 1, but did not show up, her sister, Stephanie Bowen, told Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV.

“Her car’s at home, her purse is at home. She’s nowhere to be found, and the house is on fire. It makes no sense,” Bowen told WRTV on Monday.

“I just feel like there’s something here bigger that we don’t know,” she said.

The search continued this week for the mother of two, with dozens of people, including her sisters, looking through cornfields and wooded areas near Gard’s property on Monday, WRTV reported.

Drones were deployed in the area, and conservation officers with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources have been conducting searches of the ponds at the residence and in the surrounding area, the sheriff’s office said Wednesday.

Detectives also worked with the FBI and Indiana State Police, “looking for any leads into the current and past locations of any and all devices that could lead investigators to the location of Britney Gard,” Baugh said Wednesday.

Amid the search, Bowen urged people to be “vigilant” and to check their home security cameras.

“Britney, we love you,” she told WRTV on Monday. “We hope to see you safely return home.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(SAN FRANSCISCO) — Four people, including two children, have been found dead in a “suspicious” incident inside a San Francisco home, authorities said.

San Francisco police officers responded to a home on the 900 block of Monterey Boulevard at approximately 1:23 p.m. on Thursday to perform a well-being check on a family residing in the home. But when the officers arrived, they discovered four “unresponsive individuals” who were declared dead on scene, according to a statement from the Sam Francisco Police Department.

Police said the deaths appeared to be an isolated incident, reiterating that there is no general threat to the public, but also calling the deaths “suspicious” in nature.

Officers say two of the four people found dead are kids, according to ABC News’ San Francisco station KGO.

Neighbors who live next to the family say that they are heartbroken.

“I was just coming back from school, and I heard it from my mom and I just, you know, my heart dropped,” Teo Brouwers, who lives next door to the home, told KGO.

“I don’t have the words right now. I’m in bit of shock. We are in shock, it’s a tragedy and we’re thinking about the family. We are processing the information right now,” Belinda Hanart, who also lives next door, said to KGO.

“Our bedroom is on their side, and we have two dogs so. There was no noise, nothing, and I think it was the most disturbing part we didn’t hear anything. Nothing,” Hanart continued. “We knew it was a family of four with two girls. The older one was probably 12- to 13-years-old and a dog, and it was a very normal family with normal family routine,” said Hanart.

The names of the dead have not yet been released and police are not saying what they believe happened, but did confirm that crimes were committed inside the home.

Investigators were asked if an attacker or assailant could have been one of the four found dead in the home, according KGO.

“That is a possibility. We’re not confirming any of that at this time but that is a possibility of this incident,” said Officer Robert Rueca of the San Francisco Police Department.

“We heard them more than we saw them and it was just normal family life, like kids in the garden trying to get the dog inside, and having barbecue for summer nights, that’s it. Just like us,” said Hanart.

The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is conducting a parallel investigation and will determine the cause and manner of death.

The San Francisco Police Department Homicide Detail was notified of the suspicious deaths and is leading the ongoing investigation.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(FRANKLIN COUNTY, Pa.) — Two state troopers were wounded in a shooting and the suspect was killed after a car chase ended in an exchange of gunfire in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.

Both of the troopers were rushed to the hospital. One is in critical condition and the other is in serious condition, according to authorities.

The troopers were responding to a reported retail theft at Dicks Sporting Goods in Chambersburg shortly after 6 p.m., Pennsylvania State Police said in a news release.

The suspects in the theft fled the store, traveling toward nearby Interstate 81 and were pursued by the troopers, who eventually used spike strips to stop the vehicle, according to state police.

When the vehicle came to a stop off the road, two female suspects followed orders and got out of the vehicle to be taken into custody, state police said.

The male suspect, however, began shooting at troopers, authorities said, striking two of them. The troopers fired back, fatally wounding the suspect.

Authorities haven’t released the identities of the troopers who were wounded or the suspected shooter.

State police and the Franklin County District Attorney’s Office are investigating the shooting.

Franklin County, which is located in south-central Pennsylvania, is home to 155,000 residents and its county seat is Chambersburg.

In a statement on social media, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he was praying for the officers.

“Pennsylvania’s law enforcement officers are the very best of us — running towards danger every day to keep our communities safe,” Shapiro said.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.