(WASHINGTON) — The FBI is considering moving its training academy from Quantico, Virginia, to Huntsville, Alabama, according to sources familiar with the decision, as part of a broader effort to shift federal law enforcement resources out of the Capital region.
The FBI said in a statement that “any relocation options are being evaluated for budgetary reasons and to save money, while taking advantage of the best facilities available.”
Quantico has been the site of the FBI training facility since the 1970s.
The potential move is being spearheaded by FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, according to sources.
In recent months, Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel have visited Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, the FBI’s “innovation center,” and have publicly posted about it.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said on social media that the possible move is “GREAT NEWS” for Alabama.
(WASHINGTON) — Immigrant rights groups are asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to provide “emergency relief” and bar the Trump administration from continuing to ramp up its use of expedited removal.
The motion, filed on Tuesday, is part of an ongoing lawsuit that is challenging the administration’s expansion of the process which allows the government to quickly expel migrants sometimes without going before a judge.
The filing has taken a renewed sense of urgency for the groups. In recent weeks, there’s been a dramatic spike of arrests in courthouses after DHS moves to dismiss cases against migrants in removal proceedings.
“With no advance notice to the noncitizens, Defendants are moving for [immigration judges] to dismiss people’s removal proceedings; arresting and detaining people who have appeared for their court hearings as directed; and placing them in expedited removal proceedings, thereby denying them any meaningful opportunity to be heard before quickly removing them,” the groups wrote in the filing.
The filing added, “This aggressive new implementation of the Rule and Guidance has sown fear in immigrant communities, as noncitizens who have been complying with their legal obligations now face the risk of arrest and summary deportation at their next court dates.”
The groups accuse ICE officers of coordinating with Department of Homeland Security attorneys and “stationing themselves in immigration courts” to “ambush noncitizens” after their cases are dismissed.
Even those who have pending asylum applications and other petitions for relief are being targeted for expedited removal, the groups say.
They claim that those who have been detained include “man whose partner was 8 months pregnant and who had applied for asylum, gay couple who feared persecution, asylum seeker married to a U.S. citizen, and 19-year-old who appears eligible for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.”
The groups are asking the judge to halt expedited removals while the court battle continues.
A senior DHS spokesperson previously defended the courthouse arrests in a statement to ABC News, saying: “Most aliens who illegally entered the United States within the past two years are subject to expedited removals. Biden ignored this legal fact and chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including violent criminals, into the country with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been.”
The statement added on the migrants, “If they have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation.”
(NEW YORK) — Harvey Weinstein has been convicted on one count of engaging in criminal sex but acquitted on the second in his sex crimes retrial in New York.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the rape count.
The verdict comes after some apparent discord in the jury room during deliberations.
On Monday, the jury foreperson wrote in a note to Judge Curtis Farber, “I need to talk to you about a situation that isn’t very good.” The foreperson was called into the judge’s chambers, where he said some jurors were “attacking, talking together, fight together” — adding, “I don’t like it” — according to a transcript of the closed encounter.
The foreperson said jurors were discussing Harvey Weinstein’s past.
When the judge summoned the entire jury that day, he reminded them to discuss only the evidence presented at trial and to be cordial.
Prosecutors said Weinstein “preyed on three women” as “he held unfettered power for over 30 years” in Hollywood, while the defense countered the producer did not coerce the women and claimed they were using him for his connections.
Weinstein, 73, pleaded not guilty and has said his sexual encounters were consensual. He did not testify during the trial, where he is being retried for sexually assaulting two women, Mimi Haley and Jessica Mann, after an earlier conviction was overturned on appeal. He is also charged with sexually assaulting a third woman, Kaja Sokola, who was not part of the first trial. All three women have publicly come forward and testified during the trial.
“Harvey Weinstein had enormous control over those working in television and film. He decided who was in and who was out,” the prosecutor, Shannon Lucey, told the jury of seven women and five men at the start of the trial. “He held the golden ticket. The chance to make it or not.”
Lucey claimed that “no” was “not a word the defendant was used to hearing.”
Weinstein’s defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, agreed with prosecutors that Weinstein was a powerful man in the television and film industries, but he told the jury Weinstein did not coerce the women he’s accused of assaulting. Instead, Aidala claimed Weinstein engaged in “mutually beneficial relationships” that the attorney said have been going on in Hollywood for a hundred years.
“They’re fooling around with him consensually,” Aidala claimed. “The casting couch was not a crime scene.”
In detailing the alleged sexual assaults, Lucey claimed that when Haley went to Weinstein’s Crosby Street apartment in July 2006 to discuss a production role on “Project Runway,” he allegedly “held her down” and subjected her to forcible sexual conduct.
Sokola was 16 when she first met Weinstein in 2002 at a restaurant in the West Village shortly after signing a modeling contract to come to New York from Poland. Several years later, in 2006, Weinstein cast Sokola as an extra in “The Nanny Diaries.” After a lunch at a Manhattan hotel that year, Weinstein allegedly “pressed on her shoulders with enough force to get her down on the bed” and forced oral sex on the 19-year-old as she said, “Please do not do this,” Lucey claimed.
Lucey also claimed Weinstein allegedly forced Sokola to touch his genitals in a Manhattan apartment when she was 16. Weinstein is not charged in that alleged 2002 incident in the indictment, as it is outside the statute of limitations. But the judge has allowed Sokola to testify about it during the trial, along with a second alleged incident involving Weinstein she says occurred in 2004. Sokola previously filed a lawsuit in New York under the Child Victims Act over the alleged 2002 incident, which prosecutors said has since been settled.
In 2013, Weinstein allegedly subjected Mann to sex without her consent at a hotel, according to Lucey. Mann testified that Weinstein raped her after finding out she had a serious boyfriend who was an actor. Lucey claimed Mann had also engaged in sexual encounters with Weinstein that were not coerced out of fear of his power in the industry.
The new trial comes after the New York Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein’s initial 2020 conviction last year, finding the trial judge “erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.”
Weinstein has also appealed his conviction in December 2022 on sex offenses in Los Angeles. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison there.
(ISLE ROYALE, Mich.) — Two people were found dead at Isle Royale National Park in a “remote backcountry campground” within the park, according to the National Park Service.
The Isle Royal National Park is a remote island wilderness in the middle of Lake Superior in Michigan. It is only accessible by ferry, seaplane or private watercraft, according to the NPS.
Park rangers received reports of two people found dead at the campground on Sunday afternoon, the NPS said.
Rangers then hiked 11 miles overnight to reach the campground and assess the situation. They arrived early Monday morning and confirmed two unidentified people were found dead, the NPS said.
Their cause of death remains unknown, according to the NPS.
Additional ground and aviation resources responded on Monday, the NPS said.
Two men are being charged by the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles for possession of an unregistered destructive device for their roles in the Los Angeles protest violence. U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles
(LOS ANGELES) — Two men are being charged by the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles for possession of an unregistered destructive device for their alleged roles in the LA protest violence, federal prosecutors will announce Wednesday.
Emiliano Galvez and Wrackkie Quiogue are both accused of trying to throw Molotov cocktails at police, according to federal prosecutors.
When the LAPD approached Quiogue — who officials said was armed with a Molotov cocktail at Sunday’s protest in downtown LA — he allegedly “threw the Molotov cocktail into the air and attempted to flee,” the complaint said. The confrontation was caught on officer body camera.
LAPD officers subdued Quiogue and arrested him, prosecutors said.
Galvez is accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail over a wall toward LA sheriff’s deputies who were “engaging in crowd control activities” during a protest in Paramount, a city in south LA County , on Saturday, federal prosecutors said. The incident was caught on officer body camera.
Galvez was arrested after a foot chase, officials said.
The protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement continue to grip LA; Mayor Karen Bass issued an overnight curfew for about 1 square mile of downtown.
The protests have also spread to other cities including New York City, Seattle, Chicago San Francisco, Boston, and Austin, Texas.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and his administration officials warned that the use of the military in response to protests against his immigration crackdown may not be limited to just Los Angeles, saying it could be the first “of many” — and that protesters could be met with “equal or greater force.”
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday that his administration was going to enforce its deportation policy strictly and that it would not tolerate violent protests against ICE officers.
“This is the first, perhaps, of many,” Trump said of the deployment of 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 Marines to Los Angeles as demonstrators clash with law enforcement amid the protests.
Demonstrators have clashed with law enforcement sporadically for days, and Trump called in the National Guard, against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wishes, in an attempt to quell the violence and allow immigration enforcement to continue.
“You know, if we didn’t attack this one very strongly, you’d have them all over the country, but I can inform the rest of the country, that when they do it, if they do it, they’re going to be met with equal or greater force,” Trump continued.
The president’s threats come as California’s leaders and 22 Democratic governors decry Trump’s show of force as a breach of the state’s sovereignty and a provocative escalation.
Trump’s words were echoed in testimony given by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill earlier in the day.
“So in Los Angeles, we believe that ICE, which is a federal law enforcement agency, has the right to safely conduct operations in any state, in any jurisdiction in the country,” Hegseth said. “ICE agents should be allowed to be safe and doing their operations, and we have deployed National Guard and the Marines to protect them in the execution of their duties, because we ought to be able to enforce … immigration law in this country.”
The president suggested he is open to invoking the Insurrection Act in response to the protests. The act authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the United States to suppress rebellion or violence.
The National Guard and Marines, under Trump’s current authorization, are not allowed to act in a law enforcement capacity because of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act.
“There were areas of Los Angeles last night where you could call it an insurrection,” Trump said.
Trump repeated claims, without evidence, that the protesters are “paid insurrectionists.” He decried some protesters who were damaging streets and targeting members of the National Guard.
Despite claims from Trump that there were fires and “bad scenes” on Monday night, there wasn’t anything all that violent. ABC News observed police moved protesters using skirmish lines and less lethal rounds around the city for a few hours, but there was no widespread violence compared to the weekend.
And although Trump claimed that Los Angeles was “under siege,” the incidents had been confined on Sunday and Monday to a relatively small area of downtown Los Angeles — about a 10-block area.
So far, the National Guard’s presence and role in handling the protests appears to have been minimal.
ABC News observed National Guard troops standing outside of a federal building and the Los Angeles Police Department and other local agencies clearing the streets and interacting with protesters.
The administration has not immediately provided details about the guardsman’s actions from Monday.
Congressional Republicans — including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune — backed the president’s use of the military in the situation.
“Clearly, the local officials there, for whatever reason, didn’t seem up to the task of getting the job done there,” Thune told reporters Tuesday.
Although Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said “violence in the riots is outrageous,” he called Trump’s order to send in troops “provocative” and “dangerous.”
“It really threatens the bedrock of our democracy,” the New York Democrat said.
Trump said the National Guard will be in the Los Angeles area “until there’s no danger,” declining to put a timetable on ending the deployment.
“It’s easy. Look, it’s common sense. … When there’s no danger, they’ll leave,” he said.
ABC News’ Alex Stone, Lalee Ibssa, Isabella Murray and Kelsey Walsh and contributed to this report.
Maddy Marr/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was the Michael Jordan of drug-fueled sex parties — at least, according to himself.
That revelation was included in another day of testimony from Combs’ ex-girlfriend, who alleges she was forced to participate in degrading sex with male prostitutes for Combs’ voyeuristic gratification.
Testifying under the pseudonym “Jane,” the ex-girlfriend has spent four days walking a federal jury in Manhattan through a life that was funded by Combs and centered on his sexual appetites. She said she spent so much time participating in sexual encounters that Combs compared her, himself and a male escort to well-known sports stars.
A male escort they frequently hired was, to Combs, “Shaquille O’Neal.” Jane was compared and labeled “Kobe Bryant.” Combs considered himself to be “Jordan,” Jane testified.
The athletic comparisons capped off the 24th day of the rap mogul’s sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial, as defense attorneys tried to cast doubt on Jane’s claims that she was coerced to participate in the sex parties. Jane is a critical part of the authorities’ case against the onetime cultural icon, who has been locked up since his arrest last September.
Prosecutors have argued that Combs used his wealth and influence to pressure women like Jane into sex, then used his money and violence to keep them quiet to protect his reputation. Combs has pleaded not guilty and claims he has never coerced anyone into sex.
After three days of testimony about the trauma she said she endured during her relationship with Combs, Jane was challenged during a full court session Tuesday by Combs’ defense team. They repeatedly tried to highlight Jane’s apparently loving messages sent to Combs and her apparent willingness to engage in his sexual fantasies.
“I wish you were here. We can play our videos on tv and lock each other in the room all day,” Jane texted Combs. “I never c— so hard like that in my life.”
The cross examination took on a sharper tone as defense attorney Teny Geragos argued the lavish gifts undercut Jane’s allegations of trauma, coercion and force.
“No, I only got trauma,” Jane fired at Geragos when asked about Combs’ giving another girlfriend a Chanel handbag.
When Geragos asked about another luxury handbag Bottega Veneta, Jane fired at the attorney, “I’m sure you have one,”
“How much do Bottega bags run?” Geragos asked Jane.
Jane snapped: “How much does my body cost?”
The testimony is set to resume on Wednesday afternoon with additional questioning by Combs’ lawyers. Defense attorneys told the judge overseeing the case that they would likely conclude their questions for Jane on Thursday.
Jane said she believed Combs was a ‘cuckold’
Jane told jurors that she was regularly jealous of Combs for spending more quality time with other women. She said she believes Combs was “polyamorous.”
“What was hard for me was the imbalance in treatment,” Jane said. “I didn’t sign up to date a man who was in a public relationship.”
Though she said she was frustrated that the majority of her time with Combs was dominated by prolonged sexual encounters with other men that Combs observed, Jane told jurors that she sought to understand why Combs enjoyed watching her have sex with other men.
Jane explained to the jury, “I was trying to deep-dive on all the reasons why they drew such pleasure watching their woman with other men.”
She told the jury she came upon the word “cuck,” which she described as a “man who is in a relationship and is turned on by watching a woman have sex with another man.”
Geragos asked, “What did that word mean to you?”
Jane answered, “I was just like this is spot on.”
The testimony about Combs’ sexual desires comes as defense attorneys seek to highlight what they argue is Jane’s willingness to participate in sex acts with Combs by learning what he liked sexually, potentially undercutting the prosecution’s claim that she was coerced into the drug-fueled encounters she called “hotel nights.”
Jane also testified that there were parts of the orgies she enjoyed and that the evenings satisfied Combs’ sexual desires.
“I loved when we would make love and said he wanted me,” Jane said. “He would say things like he never wanted me to leave and so many nice, loving things.”
Jane distances Combs’ employees from alleged sex trafficking
Defense attorney Geragos peppered her cross examination with questions about the role of Combs’ employees during their three-year relationship, seemingly trying to distance the rap mogul’s assistants and security from the alleged illegal acts at the center of the prosecution’s case.
“It was important that none of his employees knew about the entertainers from these nights?” Geragos asked about the male escorts Combs hired for “hotel nights.”
“Right,” Jane said, emphasizing how Combs began hosting the sex parties in private residences insead of hotel rooms to ensure the events would be secretive.
Despite testifying that Combs’ chief of staff Kristina Khorram functioned as Combs’ “right brain” and was generally apprised of his activities, Jane told the jury that Combs tried to keep her out of the process for booking and paying escorts for the sexual romps.
“Did [Khorram] have any knowledge that escorts were joining the hotels?” Geragos asked.
“I don’t think so,” Jane answered.
By distancing Combs’ employees from the rap mogul’s alleged crimes, the testimony could help defense attorneys as they try to cast doubt on the prosecutors’ allegation that Combs used his business empire to carry out his crimes. To convict Combs on racketeering conspiracy, jurors would need to find that Combs relied on others, like his security guards or assistants, to commit at least two related crimes.
(LOS ANGELES) — Demonstrations have gripped Los Angeles for several days in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the sanctuary city, with some protesters clashing with police.
Tensions escalated after President Donald Trump called up the National Guard over the objections of state and city leaders to address what the White House referred to as the “lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.”
Solidarity protests against ICE have broken out in other cities in the wake of the federal response, which has also included deploying hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles.
Here’s a look at how the protests began and what demonstrators are calling for.
How did the LA protests start?
On Friday, federal agents executed search warrants authorized by a Los Angeles federal judge at four businesses suspected of unlawfully employing undocumented immigrants and falsifying employment records, according to a criminal complaint.
On social media, “word quickly spread about ‘ICE raids’ taking place throughout Los Angeles,” according to the complaint.
Video showed federal agents conducting the operations, including at a Home Depot in Westlake and the clothing manufacturer Ambiance Apparel in downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she was “deeply angered” over the raids.
“These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city,” she said in a statement on Friday. “We will not stand for this.”
Local activists and family members of the workers showed up at the locations, confronting agents about the arrests. A prominent union leader — Service Employees International Union California President David Huerta — was arrested on Friday outside Ambiance Apparel and charged with conspiracy to impede an officer following an altercation with a law enforcement officer, according to the complaint. SEIU President April Verrett told ABC News that Huerta was “exercising his constitutional right to peacefully protest and be an observer on a sidewalk in the city of Los Angeles.”
Following the raids, protesters also gathered outside federal buildings in downtown Los Angeles that are home to an immigration court and a detention facility, holding signs that said “ICE out of LA!”
“Our community is under attack and is being terrorized,” Angelica Salas, the executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said during a press conference in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. “These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop. Immigration enforcement that is terrorizing our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now.”
Hours later, amid ongoing protests in downtown LA, the LAPD declared an unlawful assembly Friday evening following reports that a “small group of violent individuals are throwing large pieces of concrete,” and officers in riot gear moved in to disperse the crowd.
‘We’re going to keep showing up’
Protests against immigration raids continued into the weekend in downtown LA, as well as Los Angeles County cities including Compton and Paramount.
“We have a very beautiful community, a very strong community. And this is why we show up and we’re going to keep showing up,” Paramount demonstrator Nabil Shukir told ABC Los Angeles station KABC over the weekend. “It is an obligation and a duty for each and every one of us to be here and fight against the oppression and these kidnappings.”
On Saturday, the White House said Trump signed a memorandum deploying thousands of National Guardsmen to Los Angeles after “violent mobs” attacked ICE officers — over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
The following day, some protesters were seen hurling scooters and bottles at patrol vehicles and several of the self-driving car company Waymo’s vehicles were set on fire.
Amid the protests, LAPD said officers have arrested dozens of people for failure to disperse, as well as looting. Other charges have included attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail and assault with a deadly weapon, police said.
Bass has condemned the violence while noting in a call with KABC on Monday that the majority of people protesting have been peaceful and that the more-violent protesting and vandalism were happening “late at night.” She added that she assumed violent protests weren’t being led by people supporting immigrants, but rather by “fringe groups.”
Bass has also blamed Trump for the escalation and has continued to call on the Trump administration to stop immigration raids in the city, saying the fear and uncertainty they have created have led to the unrest.
“It makes me feel like our city is actually a test case, a test case for what happens when the federal government moves in and takes the authority away from the state or away from local government,” she told reporters during a news conference Monday. “I don’t think that our city should be used for an experiment.”
Newsom has called the deployment a “complete overreaction.” He and California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on Monday that they have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the “illegal and unnecessary takeover” of the California National Guard that has “needlessly escalated chaos and violence in the Los Angeles region.”
“Let me be clear: There is no invasion. There is no rebellion. The President is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends,” Bonta said in a statement.
Protests over the federal response and continued ICE raids in the Los Angeles area have been ongoing. Demonstrations have also been held at Los Angeles International Airport against Trump’s new travel ban, which went into effect on Monday and bars nationals of 12 countries from entering the U.S.
SEIU held a large rally in downtown LA on Monday in support of Huerta, who was released from federal custody on a $50,000 bond that day.
Bass said Tuesday it is unclear how many people have been detained by ICE.
“On Thursday of last week, Los Angeles was peaceful. There was nothing going on here that warranted the federal intervention that took place the very next day,” she said during a press briefing. “If we want to look at the cause of what is happening here, I take it back to raids that took place on Friday, and the uncertainty and the fear and the fact that families across the city are terrified that they don’t know if they should go to work, they don’t know if they should go to school.”
Trump on Tuesday defended his decision to send in the National Guard and Marines, saying the situation in LA was “out of control.”
“All I want is safety. I just want a safe area,” he told reporters. “Los Angeles was under siege until we got there. The police were unable to handle it.”
Trump went on to suggest that he sent in the National Guard and the Marines to send a message to other cities not to interfere with ICE operations or they will be met with equal or greater force.
“If we didn’t attack this one very strongly, you’d have them all over the country,” he said. “But I can inform the rest of the country that when they do it, if they do it, they’re going to be met with equal or greater force than we met right here.”
Why are people protesting ICE?
Since Friday, other demonstrations have broken out across the country in solidarity, protesting ICE activity in their communities and the federal response in Los Angeles. On Monday, protests were held in cities including New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Dallas, and, in California, San Jose and Santa Ana.
Protesters turned out in San Francisco on Sunday outside of an Immigration Services building to rally in solidarity against ICE raids and deportations.
“We’ve been watching what’s going on in LA, and we’re like, no,” protester Nancy Kato told ABC San Francisco station KGO. “The whole thing about going after immigrants and people who are undocumented, the most vulnerable of our populations, that is so wrong.”
Nellie Wong told KGO she was there “to protest the outrageous attacks on undocumented immigrants.”
“This has been going on for some time, but the events that have been going on in Los Angeles, I just find horrifying,” another protester, Amy Gray-Schlink, told KGO. “We need a united front of everyone who wants to oppose the scapegoating of immigrants.”
In San Diego County, protesters gathered near the main gate of Camp Pendleton on Sunday to stand against any military activation.
“We want to show our support to the military members that work here. We want to kind of remind them of what their duty is to us,” one of the demonstrators, Air Force veteran Patrick Saunders, told ABC San Diego affiliate KGTV. “But additionally, we want to make it very publicly known that we condemn any sort of action by the administration of using active duty or National Guard troops on U.S. citizens.”
(WASHINGTON) — A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers outside of an immigration detention facility last month, officials announced Tuesday.
The three-count indictment charges the Democratic congresswoman with “forcibly impeding and interfering with federal law enforcement officers” at the facility, New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba said in a post on X.
“As I have stated in the past, it is my Constitutional obligation as the Chief Federal Law Enforcement Officer for New Jersey to ensure that our federal partners are protected when executing their duties,” Habba said. “While people are free to express their views for or against particular policies, they must not do so in a manner that endangers law enforcement and the communities those officers serve.”
The indictment is a standard procedural step after Habba’s office charged McIver via a criminal complaint last month.
McIver has vowed she will fight the charges and plans to plead not guilty.
“The facts of this case will prove I was simply doing my job and will expose these proceedings for what they are: a brazen attempt at political intimidation,” she said in a statement on X. “This indictment is no more justified than the original charges, and is an effort by Trump’s administration to dodge accountability for the chaos ICE caused and scare me out of doing the work I was elected to do. But it won’t work — I will not be intimidated.”
On May 9, McIver and a few other members of Congress were at Delaney Hall, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Newark, New Jersey, to conduct oversight.
Tensions escalated when a federal officer ordered Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to leave a secured area of the facility or face arrest, and pushing and shoving allegedly occurred, according to prosecutors.
“During her continued attempts to thwart the arrest, McIver slammed her forearm into the body of one law enforcement officer and also reached out and tried to restrain that officer by forcibly grabbing him,” the Department of Justice said in a press release on Tuesday. “McIver also used each of her forearms to forcibly strike a second officer.”
Following the charges via criminal complaint, McIver alleged in a statement that the decision was politically motivated.
“The charges against me are purely political — they mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight,” McIver said.
Top House Democrats also released a joint statement last month defending McIver, vowing to “vigorously” respond to what they say is an illegitimate abuse of power.
“An attack on one of us is an attack on the American people. House Democrats will respond vigorously in the days to come at a time, place and manner of our choosing,” the leaders said.
If convicted, the maximum penalty for the charges in the indictment ranges from one to eight years, Habba said.
Baraka was arrested at the facility and charged with trespassing, though Habba later dropped the charge.
(LOS ANGELES) — A brush fire burning near homes in Los Angeles County prompted evacuation orders Tuesday afternoon, according to authorities.
The Burbank Fire Department said Tuesday evening it managed to stop the forward progress of the Bethany Fire, which was burning near a residential area in Burbank, California.
Fire crews remained in the area for several hours cleaning up, advising people to stay clear of the area, police said.
“If you are on or near the hiking trails or in these recreation areas in the Burbank hills, please leave the area immediately,” the Burbank Police Department said.
All hiking trails remain close through the evening, police said.
